Three previously unreleased tracks by rock band Queen, including one which sees singer Freddie Mercury duetting with Michael Jackson, are to finally see the light of day.
The band's guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, who have continued to tour and record as Queen with guest singers, revealed earlier this year that material featuring late frontman Mercury was in the pipeline.
Now they have announced the tracks will feature on a collection of the band's love songs which will come out in November.
The Jackson track, There Must Be More To Life Than This, was originally written while Queen were working on sessions for their Hot Space album in 1981 but after recording the backing track it was left incomplete.
Mercury went on to visit Jackson and record his vocals but despite again working on the song for 1984 album The Works, Queen never finished it and it was released as a solo effort by Mercury for his Mr Bad Guy album the following year.
Producer William Orbit, famed for his work with Madonna, said that having the chance to work on the unfinished material was like being handed "a trove of delights provided by the greatest of musicians".
"Hearing Michael Jackson's vocals was stirring. So vivid, so cool, and poignant, it was like he was in the studio singing live. With Freddie's vocal solo on the mixing desk, my appreciation for his gift was taken to an even higher level."
Mercury died in 1991 at the age of 45, while Jackson died in 2009 aged 50.
Also on the new Queen Forever album is Let Me In Your Heart Again, again recorded for The Works but until now it had never been completed. May has recorded new guitar parts.
The trio of songs is completed by a full band version of the song Love Kills, a version of which provided Mercury with a top ten hit when he recorded it with the electronic music producer Giorgio Moroder.
Other tracks to feature on the new album include You're My Best Friend, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, and Too Much Love Will Kill You.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article