In the August 14 Cover Story (on Newsstands August 11) TV Guide Magazine Commemorates 40th Anniversary of The Beatles' Legendary 1965 Shea Stadium Concert; Issue Features Four Collectible Covers and Never-Before-Published Photos.

NEW YORK -- It was 40 years ago this week ... Four young lads from Liverpool named John, Paul, George, and Ringo sprinted across the field at Shea Stadium, plugged in their instruments, and -- after being introduced by Ed Sullivan -- played to the deafening roar of 56,000 hysterical fans. It was the height of "Beatlemania"; the biggest and highest-grossing rock concert ever staged up until that point.

In its August 14 issue (on newsstands August 11), TV Guide magazine celebrates the anniversary of this historic event, which changed the way rock music would be seen and heard forever and marked the beginning of the end for the Beatles as live performers. As John Lennon once said, "At Shea Stadium, I saw the top of the mountain."

This commemorative issue of TV Guide offers four collectible covers, one featuring each of the Fab Four, plus first-person accounts from those who were lucky enough to witness this watershed moment in music history. Those in the audience on the night of August 15, 1965 included the future Mrs. Ringo Starr (actress Barbara Bach) the future Mrs. Paul McCartney (photographer Linda Eastman), Mick Jagger, Bobby Vinton, a teenaged Meryl Streep, and "Little" Steven Van Zandt of "The Sopranos."

Also inside the issue are nine pages of never before published photographs from the concert, taken by George Orsino, a photographer from Philadelphia. Ironically, Orsino wasn't supposed to be photographing the Beatles at all that night. Accompanying a group of radio winners from Philly, he managed to sneak backstage and snap several rolls of unauthorized pictures of the band as they hung out backstage and prepared for their big performance.

"I think the camera -- a big 4 x 5 -- was impressive," he explains of his waltz backstage. Now 77 years old, Orsino has just one regret about the event: "I wasn't even a Beatles fan then -- if I was, maybe I'd have taken more film!"