The voices of Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury together will be heard for the first time this year as Queen trawl through their back catalogue and unreleased studio tapes.

The song There Must Be More To Life Than This, with vocals by Mercury and Jackson, will be released on a Queen hits and rarities collection in a version which mixes original recordings with modern production (by noted studio wizard William Orbit), much in the manner of the recent Michael Jackson release Xscape. The Jackson/Mercury duet is one of three Mercury songs in the collection.

Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury

That Jackson album had songs which were partially recorded through the 1980s and 1990s and given contemporary sound treatments by a number of producers. It was controversial for its appropriation of material which, in theory, Jackson had not considered good enough to release at the time.

There Must Be More To Life Than This was recorded between 1981 and 1984, but never completed. Begun as a Queen track (written by Mercury for the 1981 album Hot Space) the song didn't have a completed vocal initially and Mercury took the instrumental version to Jackson's home studio in Los Angeles and recorded his vocals.