Beatles reunion tape criticized as a likely hoax

Beatles experts are scoffing at reports that surfaced this week of a tape ostensibly documenting a secret reunion of the group in 1976 at a Los Angeles recording studio, saying it is inconceivable that such a session could have been kept totally secret for 27 years.

The reports focus on an auction website’s posting of a tape listing five songs purportedly recorded Nov. 2, 1976, by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Those familiar with the group’s actions at the time say it smacks of a hoax. Elliott Mintz, a confidant of Lennon’s until his death in 1980, said Tuesday that had Lennon been in Los Angeles at that time, “most certainly I would have been in touch with him.” Comment was not immediately available from spokespeople for McCartney, Starr or longtime Beatles producer George Martin, who also was said to be in the studio.

-- Randy Lewis