It was a duet of legendary proportions but somehow we had to wait 33 years to hear it. Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson recorded their vocals (at Jackson’s home studio in Los Angeles) for There Must Be More To Life Than This in the Queen album Hot Space. Somehow the band didn’t finish the track. There was even talk of reviving it for the classic Queen album The Works (1984). But Mercury went on to release the song on his solo album Mr. Bad Guy in 1985.

Producer William Orbit, best known for his work on Madonna’s Ray of Light, was recently brought in to finish the original track. Orbit said: “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.”

There Must Be More To Life Than This will be released on November 10 alongside two other previously unreleased numbers — Let Me In (Your Heart Again), a Brian May composition, and a stripped-down ballad version of Mercury’s first solo hit, Love Kills, which is a collaboration with producer-songwriter Giorgio Moroder, who is again in the public eye for his contribution to Daft Punk’s recent success, Random Access Memories. Though it’s a solo effort, which was included in the restored 1984 edit of the 1927 silent film Metropolis, all the band members had participated in it.

The tracks for Queen Forever (Virgin Records/Universal Music), which will be released as a 20-track single CD and a 36-track two-CD set, have been selected by the group’s members Roger Taylor and Brian May, who say: “(These are) things that we have collected together that are representative of our growth rather than the big hits.”

In demand

Jessie J has sweet-talked her way to the top of the UK singles chart with the song Bang Bang (with Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande). This has certainly inspired her to have a packed schedule, which included Saturday night’s performance at London’s G-A-Y nightclub in a black mesh crop top, high-waisted shorts and knee-length leather boots. She has also inspired Rita Ora to follow her lead by becoming the female coach on the judging panel for the upcoming season of The Voice UK . Jessie said: “‘Rita’s a very ‘watched’ young woman.... I think she enjoys sharing her life like that.” Quite a trendsetter this double J!