Word on the street is that Queen are set to premiere an unreleased song featuring Michael Jackson tomorrow morning.
News of the premiere broke today when it was announced by BBC Radio 2 live on air that “There Must Be More To Life Than This” – a song recorded by both Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson in the early 80s – would be unveiled to the world as a Queen track featuring Mercury and Jackson’s original vocals and a brand new production by William Orbit.
According to fans who heard the announcement live on air today, Chris Evans will have Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor as guests on his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show tomorrow morning to coincide with the debut of the track.
The BBC website is hinting at the premiere, with the following posted online of Friday’s breakfast radio lineup:
“Listen in to the Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 from 8am on Friday 19th September to hear Roger and Brian talk about…well you will just have to tune in to find out won’t you!”
A fan-edited version of “There Must Be More To Life Than This” – created by splicing together both Jackson and Mercury’s versions – has been available online for years (see below). Mercury himself released a solo version of the song, which he wrote, on his ‘Mr. Bad Guy’ album in 1985.
The news comes after years of frustration among both fans and the members of Queen, with Roger Taylor last month saying that obtaining permission from The Estate of Michael Jackson to use the King of Pop’s vocals on the song was no mean feat, describing them as “difficult” and unable to give Queen a decision.
“William Orbit did a really nice mix of one of our tracks with Michael and I’m pretty certain that will be on Queen Forever,” said Taylor, adding that dealing with the Jackson estate has “been like wading through glue.”
Tune into BBC Radio 2 to hear the track live on air by clicking here.
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I expected song named Victory! I don’t really like for some reason the song There must be more life than this! Maybe they keep victory for a collaboration’s album from the side of Michael Jackson Estate but I don’t know!
Is it even going to be a separate recording or is it literally going to be the two tracks spliced together? If thats the case then its pointless and stupid. I feel like thats what we’ll get anyway and they’ll play it off as something never heard before.
You can hear it here – http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a597726/queen-michael-jackson-song-there-must-be-more-to-life-than-this-debuts.html#~oQiDXsLamdht8o
It’s a ok song, the instruments are a bit too loud and Freddie’s vocals aren’t very crisp. MJ sounds good but when 2 legends work together, I was hoping for more than this!
I have a feeling the reason Victory, and State Of Shock for that matter, was not selected for the Queen album, is because those tracks were originally intended for the Jackson’s Victory album from the mid 80’s.
So my guess is those songs were more MJ like tracks then Queen tracks. TMBMTLTT to me feels more like a Freddie / Queen song then a MJ song. Hopefully someday we’ll get the other two tracks on a future MJ or Jacksons release.