Beach Boys coming to the Peak

With a sound that's synonymous with summer, the Beach Boys will take the stage at Penn's Peak in Jim Thorpe at 8 p.m. Aug. 18.

You can capsulize most pop music acts by reciting how many hits they've had and how many millions of albums they've sold. But these conventional measurements fall short when you're assessing the impact of the Beach Boys.

To be sure, this band has birthed a torrent of hit singles and sold albums by the tens of millions. But its greater significance lies in the fact that it changed the musical landscape so profoundly that every pop act since has been in its debt.

Happily for us all, the Beach Boys continue to create and perform with the same bold imagination and style that marked their explosive debut over 50 years ago.

Even more than the Beatles, the Beach Boys found through their music the key to unfading youth - and they made copies for everyone. To these guys, the beach isn't just a place where the surf comes to play - it's where life is renewed and made whole again.

Captained by Mike Love, the Beach Boys play an astoundingly busy schedule of concerts, averaging 150 shows a year, ranging from sun-drenched summer festivals to gala New Year's celebrations and special events worldwide. In 1974 Mike Love's concept album "Endless Summer" ignited a second generation of Beach Boys fans and stirred a tempest that rocked the music world.

Grammy-winning songwriter Bruce Johnston joined the Beach Boys in 1965, replacing Glenn Campbell, who filled in for Brian Wilson, on vocals/bass, when he retired from touring. Highly regarded as a singer-songwriter, Johnston's vocal work with such legendary artists as Elton John and Pink Floyd firmly established him among rock's elite artists.

Had this remarkable band been less committed to its art and its fans, it could have retired from the field with honor at dozens of points along the way, confident that it had made a lasting contribution to world culture.

It could have rested on the success of the epoch-shifting "Pet Sounds" masterpiece in 1966, or after recording Love's co-written Golden Globe nominated "Kokomo" in 1988 and seeing it become its best-selling single ever or after being inducted that same year into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, or after watching its worldwide album sales blow past 100 million, or after winning the NARAS Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001 (along with The Who, Bob Marley, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr. and Les Paul).

The band is led by Love (lead vocals) and Johnston (vocals/keyboards), who along with Jeffrey Foskett (guitar/vocals), Brian Eichenburger (bass/vocals), Tim Bonhomme (keyboards/vocals), John Cowsill of The Cowsills (percussion/vocals) and Scott Totten (guitar/vocals) continue the legacy of the iconic American band.

Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks are not on this tour.

Also coming to Penn's Peak

• Aug. 15, Ted Nugent, 8 p.m.

• Aug. 18, The Beach Boys, 8 p.m.

• Aug. 19, The Wall Live Extravaganza, 8 p.m.

• Aug. 23, John Butler Trio, 8 p.m.

• Aug. 25, Don McLean, 8 p.m.

• Sept. 7, Quiet Riot with Black 'N Blue, 8 p.m.

• Sept. 8, Tyler Farr, 8 p.m.

• Sept. 10, Make America Rock Again, featuring Scott Stapp of Creed, Drowning Pool, Trapped, Sick Puppies and Adelitas Way, 7:30 p.m.

• Sept. 15, Montgomery Gentry, 8 p.m.

• Sept. 17, America, 8 p.m.

• Sept. 21, Rick Springfield, 8 p.m.

• Sept. 22, The Charlie Daniels Band, 8 p.m.

• Sept. 23, Ana Popovic, 7:30 p.m.

• Sept. 29, Jim Breuer, 8 p.m.

• Oct. 6, Clint Black, 8 p.m.

• Oct. 14, Dokken & Warrant, 8 p.m.

• Oct. 29, O.A.R., 8 p.m.

• Nov. 9, LeAnn Rimes, 8 p.m.

• Nov. 12, Cheap Trick, 8 p.m.

• Nov. 17, Gene Watson

Tickets are available at Ticketmaster, Penn's Peak box office and Roadies Restaurant & Bar. For VIP packages and more, go to www.MikeLove.com or www.theBeachBoys.com. For more information on Penn's Peak, go to www.pennspeak.com or call 866-605-7325.