Lawyers for the Beatles are suing to thwart distribution of previously unreleased recordings that were made in December 1962, four months after Ringo Starr joined the Beatles, at the Star Club in Hamburg, West Germany, in 1962, The Associated Press reported. Under the title “Jammin’ With the Beatles and Friends, Star Club, Hamburg, 1962,” the eight tracks are said to include Paul McCartney singing Hank Williams’s “Lovesick Blues” and Mr. McCartney and John Lennon singing “Ask Me Why.” Apple Corps, the London company formed by the Beatles, maintains that the songs were taped without their consent, and that Fuego Entertainment of Miami Lakes, Fla., and two sister companies have no right to distribute them. Apple’s lawsuit contends that the recordings are of poor quality and that circulating them “dilutes and tarnishes the extraordinarily valuable image associated with the Beatles.” Paul LiCalsi, a lawyer for Apple Corps, said, “This appears to us to be a garden-variety bootleg recording.” Hugo Cancio,the president of Fuego, said: “Don’t claim that these were just bootlegged. It’s not like today, that you just go in with a phone or BlackBerry and you record.” He added: “The world deserves to hear these tracks. The fact is that we have it, they don’t, and that is what’s bothering them.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: April 3, 2008
An Associated Press report in the “Arts, Briefly” column on March 24 about a suit filed by lawyers for the Beatles to block distribution of recordings of the band in Hamburg in 1962 referred incorrectly to the recordings and misstated the history of Ringo Starr’s performances with the band. They were made in December 1962, four months after Mr. Starr joined the Beatles; thus they were not made during his first performance with the band.


source : nytimes.com