Wives of Beatles Lead a Crusade to Save Orphans : Charity: An all-star album featuring George Harrison, Ringo Starr and a relief fund aims to ease plight of abandoned children in Romania.

Millions of fans could never get the Beatles back together, but thousands of Romanian orphans have gotten the Beatle wives together. Olivia Harrison, Barbara Bach (Starkey), Linda McCartney and Yoko Ono, along with Elton John, have teamed to create the Romanian Angel Appeal to help alleviate the hardships of countless abandoned Romanian children.

The effort hits full stride today with the release of “Nobody’s Child,” an all-star album featuring, among others, two ex-Beatles: George Harrison (as a member of the Traveling Wilburys on the title song, an old country number, and with Paul Simon from a 1976 “Saturday Night Live” performance of Simon’s “Homeward Bound”) and Ringo Starr (a CD-only live recording of “With a Little Help From My Friends”).

Among the other highlights on the album are new or previously unreleased contributions by John, Eric Clapton, Guns N’ Roses, Stevie Wonder, Billy Idol and Edie Brickell. Many of the songs were written specifically for this album, with lyrics relating to the situation.

“If anyone walked into an orphanage there they’d have no doubt they had to do something,” said Olivia Harrison, who did just that last year after enlisting the help of the other Beatle wives in making a donation to the cause, which has received wide exposure in Europe, though not in the United States.

Speaking from her home in England, Harrison recounted her experience: “I went there because I knew the situation was desperate. I had already been investigating charities to which I could give a donation, and after I became responsible for a donation from the (Beatles-operated) Apple Corps and Elton, I felt I should go over there and see how it was used. But when I was there I saw that whatever we could do was not enough.”

The situation, she said, was the result of a program instituted by former Romanian president Nicolae Ceausescu encouraging women to have many babies, but not offering support in feeding or caring for them. The result is that many were abandoned, a large number of them with AIDS.

Harrison said that estimates of the total number of orphans range from 150,000 to 400,000, and that the conditions she saw in the orphanages were appalling. Through private donations the Appeal has already raised nearly $2 million in England, all of which, Harrison said, goes directly to the Romanian effort.

“We’re not giving money (to other agencies) and it’s not going to our phone bills,” she said. “We’re paying our own phone bills. We have provided hot water and sinks and mirrors and dry mattresses. It’s not the solution, but while we’re all talking about the solution these children are still there and we’re doing something that’s helping them now.”

A charity project of this magnitude is new to Harrison, but not to her husband, who oversaw the 1971 “Concert for Bangladesh.” That project proved somewhat troubled as the funds were held up by red tape, but George’s experience has been invaluable to his wife.

“We’ve learned a lot since then,” said Olivia. “About $10 (million) or $15 million went to UNICEF from (the Bangladesh concert), though it took 10 years. I have the best teacher (in George) and he’s given me invaluable advice. And I think he’s pleased to help on this because he’s not personally responsible for it. George got to do the fun part, recording the song and calling his mates. He phoned Eric and Stevie, then Tom (Petty) phoned Axl Rose. . . . In Los Angeles everybody knows everybody and before we knew it we had more songs than we had imagined.”

One question Harrison has anticipated is if all the Beatle wives got together for the effort, why not all the surviving Beatles? There’s no contribution on the album from Paul McCartney.

Harrison said that McCartney’s absence has nothing to do with his long-reported differences with George: “Paul was on the road (when the album was being assembled). There are a lot of people not on the album and Paul happens to be one of them. I say to people who think (it had to do with a feud), ‘Well, we’re not into politics.’ ”