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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 40 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 the ageless Mike Love - who dubs himself "the hardest working man in Surf City" - The Beach Boys played an astoundingly busy schedule of concerts in 2002, ranging from their triumphal February appearance at the Winter Olympics to a gala New Year's bash at the posh Honolulu Hilton. Between engagements, they've been writing, arranging, rehearsing and preparing for a new album due out in 2003 based on their international success story. In 1974 Mike Love's concept album Endless Summer ignited a second generation of Beach Boys fans and stirred a comeback that rocked the music world.

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 "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 l00 million... or after winning a Lifetime Achievement Grammy® in 2001. Instead, the gallant crew sails on.

Few, if any, acts can match The Beach Boys' concert presence, spirit and performance. They were center-stage at Live Aid, various Farm Aids, the Statue of Liberty's 100th Anniversary Salute, the Super Bowl and the White House. On one day alone - July 4, 1985 - they played to nearly 2 million enthusiasts at shows in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

Love's role as the band's frontman sometimes overshadows his stature as one of rock's foremost songwriters. "Surfin'," The Beach Boys' first hit came from his pen. With his cousin, Brian Wilson, Love wrote the classics "Fun, Fun, Fun," "I Get Around," "Help Me Rhonda," "California Girls" and "Good Vibrations." Years later, he showed he still had the lyrical chops by co-writing the irresistible and chart-topping "Kokomo."

On The Beach Boys' near horizon are another national/world tour, a new album from Capitol Records complete with full promotional muscle and continued charity activities through Mike Love's Love Foundation, which supports national environmental and educational initiatives.

In addition to founding Beach Boy Mike Love (lead vocals), the newest incarnation of the band also includes 40-year Beach Boy-vet Bruce Johnston (vocals/keyboards), Mike Kowalski (drums), Adrian Baker (guitar/vocals), Chris Farmer (bass/vocals), Tim Bonhomme (keyboards/vocals), John Cowsill of The Cowsills (keyboards/vocals/percussion) and Scott Totten (guitar/vocals).