NEW YORK, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- The Beatles had been slowly forging a path toward a reunion when John Lennon was gunned down, it was reported Monday.
A former staffer for Capital Records told the New York Post that Paul McCartney's $10 million deal with CBS Records in 1979 had a clause that allowed him to record with The Beatles at any time.
"This is the earliest evidence of any Beatle making formal overtures toward a reunion," the source said.
Lennon submitted a sworn deposition against the producers of "Beatlemania" on Nov. 28, 1980, saying he wanted to stage a Beatles reunion concert, Keith Badman wrote in his 1999 book "The Beatles: After the Break-Up."
A Beatles reunion did not happen until 1994 and it was only in a studio, since Lennon had been dead for 14 years, the Post noted. McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr added vocals and instruments to demos of Lennon's song "Free as a Bird," which was part of "The Beatles Anthology" in 1978.
Lennon was gunned down in New York Dec. 8, 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in England on Nov. 29, 2001.
