Much has been made of the inclusion of the late Freddie Mercury’s long-lost Michael Jackson collaboration on the forthcoming Queen Forever. Fans will recognize the band’s new arrangement of “Love Kills,” an old Mercury solo hit, from its most recent tour with Adam Lambert, as well.
But this long-awaited compilation of hits and extras might end up being best remembered for its opening track, “Let Me in Your Heart Again.” Growing out of the early-1980s Los Angeles sessions for The Works, the newly completed song is built from a demo that features all of Queen’s original members — including the happily retired John Deacon.
“It’s still surprising to hear how well the four of us played together,” May tells the Huffington Post. “There were no clicks in those days, no fixing stuff with ProTools. It’s absolutely naked, four musicians playing together and it really does hang together like glue. I feel quite proud of us in those days.”
Queen Forever is due November 10, 2014 via Virgin EMI. The Jackson duet is titled “There Must Be More to Life Than This”; Mercury originally worked with Giorgio Moroder on “Love Kills.” As for “Let Me in Your Heart Again,” May had previously participated in a separate version recorded by his wife Anita Dobson for her album Talking of Love — but, otherwise, the track had laid dormant.
“It just happened to be there,” May says. “It was abandoned at the time for various technical reasons, but I was able to transfer it off the analog multi-tracks and do some repairs, so it worked from beginning to end. But basically you’re hearing the four of us together as a band from 1984 or so, playing a song that nobody’s ever heard, so that’s a thrill.”
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