Release of ‘Lost’ Beatles Songs Reported

A collection of “lost” songs by the Beatles is set to be released for the first time after lying locked up in recording studio vaults for more than 25 years, the Sunday Times reported.

The newspaper said the songs include numbers recorded at the record company EMI’s Abbey Road studios in North London in 1965, when the Liverpool-born rockers were at the height of their fame.

The paper said the planned release could put the Beatles, who split in 1970, back at the top of the pop charts.

Neither EMI nor the group’s own record company, Apple, was available for comment on the report.

But the Sunday Times said both companies are cooperating in the release of the recordings as part of a wider Beatles anthology despite tangled legal dealings over rights to material.

“They will be issued with the full cooperation of the Beatles,” the newspaper quoted one unnamed source close to Apple as saying.

The Beatles--Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and the late John Lennon--recorded their first hit, “Love Me Do,” at Abbey Road 30 years ago.

The Sunday Times said previously unreleased archive material found at the studios included an early attempt by drummer Starr at singing, as well as renditions by Lennon and McCartney.