On February 9, 1964, a group of four 20-something musicians from Liverpool made their debut on U.S. television and forever changed popular music. The Beatles’ appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” that Sunday evening was watched by some 73 million people, sending many viewers on completely new paths in their lives.

As we celebrate the 60th anniversary Friday and prepare to officially kick off the sixth season of “Everything Fab Four,” a podcast co-produced by me and Kenneth Womack (a music scholar who also writes about pop music for Salon) and distributed by Salon, we’ve got a special episode showcasing the stories of our many guests who were influenced by this pivotal event in cultural history – by far the No. 1 “Beatles moment” mentioned on our show.

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But how did Ed Sullivan end up booking the band in the first place? Margo Precht Speciale, Sullivan’s granddaughter and the daughter of producer Bob Precht, was a guest on “Everything Fab Four”........

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