Wednesday, November 11: Happy Birthday Keyboardist Mic Michaeli of Europe

Happy Birthday today (Nov. 11) to the man behind the keyboards for the band Europe. Mic Michaeli is 53. Michaeli can be heard on "The Final Countdown", one of the band's biggest songs.

Michaeli has co-written several Europe songs, including the ballad "Carrie". The song was Europe's biggest hit in the U.S. reaching number 3 on the Billboard chart. Europe is a swedish hard rock/metal band that formed out of Stockholm in 1979 under the name Force with vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, bassist Peter Olsson and drummer Tony Reno. Mic Mchaeli joined the band in 1984 for the band's Wings of Tomorrow tour, taking over for singer Joey Tempest behind the keyboards. The band rose to fame in the 1980's with their third album, 1986's The Final Countdown which sold over three million copies in the United States. The band has sold over 20 million records worldwide.

Check out Europe appearing in a recent Geico commercial below.