COEUR d’ALENE — They've burst out of a giant jukebox.

They've pulled up in limousines, horse-drawn carriages and sexy Cadillacs.

They've even parachuted into a concert, driving their fans wild.

The Fabulous Shadows always had a knack for extravagant entrances.

"Everything we've done, it's been fun," Fabulous Shadows vocalist Jim Frame, 70, said Wednesday afternoon.

And when it's their last concert, which very well could be their performance on a Coeur d'Alene Lake Cruise with the Rhythm Dawgs on Aug. 10, their finale is sure to be just as grand.

"We are getting old," said saxophonist Dr. Jack Fulwiler, 68. "We are wearing out."

The Fabulous Shadows first formed in Coeur d'Alene in 1963. They were six young men who performed at fraternity parties, proms and dances in the Coeur d'Alene City Park.

"We played slab dances downtown," said lead guitarist Mike Bolan, 69. "Every Friday night and even Saturday night, there used to be teenage dances like in ‘Grease’ and ‘American Graffiti.’"

"We’ve always had a good crowd from the Silver Valley because we used to play there all the time. They loved us," Fulwiler said. "The (American) Legion hall, we used to play there at least once a month, in Kellogg, and we used to play the Wallace Eagles and private parties at the Elks."

The band played when they could through college and growing-up years and a couple members moving to Seattle. They reunited for an unforgettable night in the summer of 1985 when they played for a fundraiser in an old airplane hangar at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds.

"It was a ’50s, ’60s theme, everybody dressed up in poodle skirts and guys had white T-shirts with Lucky Strikes and greased hair," Frame said. "The atmosphere was such that when we came in, this was our grand entrance at this time, we pulled a Cadillac in there and we jumped out, but the mood of the night, I mean, everyone just had a ball.”

"You coined the phrase 'magic' that night," keyboardist Dexter Yates, 70, said to his bandmate.

The Fabulous Shadows will once again bring the magic of rock and roll to life during the evening of the cruise, although they officially retired in 2005.

"My thought is, every one we do from now on could be the last one, because you just don’t know," Bolan said. “I’m surprised we’re doing this, so it’s good. It is really cool for me because I’m probably as excited about this one as I have been about any of them."

"One of the rare things is for a band to stay together that long and for your kids to grow up with it and now the grandkids," Yates said. "I’ve had a lot of friends say, ‘Boy do I envy you, how much fun could it possibly be to have that close bind with your friends and play music and get up on the stage and make everybody happy?'"

Seated on couches and chairs in Yates' office, the Fabulous Shadows reminisced about their years of knowing each other and performing together. They easily burst into laughter and weaved through memories that made them snicker like teenagers.

"Jumping up and down on the (cruise) boats. We got in trouble with that one time," Yates said “The steel beams were causing waves to go out the side of the boat. They shut the power off. The captain ran downstairs and looked up at the beams and pulled the plug.”

They also shared a few serious moments, like how they once saved a marriage and how they'll never forget the man who gave them their official name — "Bubblehead" Bob Hough.

"He recently died," Bolan said. "We were the Shadows until Bob started playing our records and he called us the Fabulous Shadows, so we kept that. He’s an honorary member of the band."

Only 180 tickets are left for the Fabulous Shadows "double-boat-float" cruise and concert featuring the Rhythm Dawgs. The cruise boards at 6 p.m. and departs at 6:30 p.m. and goes until 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at www.cdacruises.com or by calling 765-4000.

And if you don't get a ticket to their oldies and rock and roll show on the water, the Fabulous Shadows are sure that anyone with open windows south of Best Avenue will be able to hear it when they play their version of Van Morrison's "Gloria."

"It’s not about loud music, it’s about 700-800 people yelling 'G-L-O-R-I-A' as loud as they can. We’re loud enough, but it’s not the music, it’s the people," Bolan said. "Our generation, we knew how to have a good time."