Freddie's duet that never came true
Aug 13, 2021 19:28:30 GMT
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Post by fabiogminero on Aug 13, 2021 19:28:30 GMT
Hi,
In these years of research I have come to know a very interesting fact. I state that, in addition to being a fan of Queen, I am also a huge fan of the Beatles, both as a group and as soloists...I have also written and published a book about them.
Anyway, I found out that in 1987 there should have been a collaboration between Freddie Mercury and Paul McCartney. A few years ago I also talked about it with some Italian fans, and they too were aware of the fact. Unfortunately the sources are not many, but there are some articles that talk about this lack of collaboration between the two artists; one of the main sources confirming this fact is an article published in 2017 on macca-news.blogspot.com (https://macca-news.blogspot.com/2017/11/once-upon-a-long-ago-paul-mccartney.html?fbclid=IwAR3t5cC38bruI3BcsjsPbsEPtqFvay6Ro2l9H5Y-8wSSPPnBfJr5jTFj1XI).
Mercury and McCartney have known each other since the mid-1970s; all the members of Queen partecipated at the opening ceremony of the 'Buddy Holly Week' on 7th September 1976 (there are existing photos of that day). Paul was a huge fan of Holly since his teenage years and he purchased his publishing rights around 1976; just in the year that Holly would have turned forty, he organized a week of celebrations to remember the artist who passed away in a plane crash at the age of 22 in 1959. The event took place every year until 1999.
It was after 'Live Aid' that Freddie and Paul became a sort of friends; McCartney also appeared in the 'Magic Years' documentary from 1987 and spent words of credit towards Queen, defining Freddie as 'King Mercury'. In 1987 he wrote a new song called 'Once Upon A Long Ago' and decided to record it with Queen singer; McCartney had already had hugely successful duets in previous years ("Ebony And Ivory" with Stevie Wonder in 1982 and "Say, Say, Say" with Michael Jackson in 1983) and this would certainly have been no less.
It is said that Paul recorded a demo vocal for Freddie and proposed the song to him to record it together; unfortunately, Freddie rejected the proposal because it was too busy with his solo-projects (he released his cover of "The Great Pretender" in February 1987 and started to work on the "Barcelona" project with Mike Moran and Montserrat Caballè); he also discovered that he was ill with AIDS at the same time and this probably prompted him to focus on something else.
Paul then recorded the song on his own and released it as a single in the UK on 16th November 1987 and included it on his "All The Best!" compilation released taht same month; it was a Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart.
In these years of research I have come to know a very interesting fact. I state that, in addition to being a fan of Queen, I am also a huge fan of the Beatles, both as a group and as soloists...I have also written and published a book about them.
Anyway, I found out that in 1987 there should have been a collaboration between Freddie Mercury and Paul McCartney. A few years ago I also talked about it with some Italian fans, and they too were aware of the fact. Unfortunately the sources are not many, but there are some articles that talk about this lack of collaboration between the two artists; one of the main sources confirming this fact is an article published in 2017 on macca-news.blogspot.com (https://macca-news.blogspot.com/2017/11/once-upon-a-long-ago-paul-mccartney.html?fbclid=IwAR3t5cC38bruI3BcsjsPbsEPtqFvay6Ro2l9H5Y-8wSSPPnBfJr5jTFj1XI).
Mercury and McCartney have known each other since the mid-1970s; all the members of Queen partecipated at the opening ceremony of the 'Buddy Holly Week' on 7th September 1976 (there are existing photos of that day). Paul was a huge fan of Holly since his teenage years and he purchased his publishing rights around 1976; just in the year that Holly would have turned forty, he organized a week of celebrations to remember the artist who passed away in a plane crash at the age of 22 in 1959. The event took place every year until 1999.
It was after 'Live Aid' that Freddie and Paul became a sort of friends; McCartney also appeared in the 'Magic Years' documentary from 1987 and spent words of credit towards Queen, defining Freddie as 'King Mercury'. In 1987 he wrote a new song called 'Once Upon A Long Ago' and decided to record it with Queen singer; McCartney had already had hugely successful duets in previous years ("Ebony And Ivory" with Stevie Wonder in 1982 and "Say, Say, Say" with Michael Jackson in 1983) and this would certainly have been no less.
It is said that Paul recorded a demo vocal for Freddie and proposed the song to him to record it together; unfortunately, Freddie rejected the proposal because it was too busy with his solo-projects (he released his cover of "The Great Pretender" in February 1987 and started to work on the "Barcelona" project with Mike Moran and Montserrat Caballè); he also discovered that he was ill with AIDS at the same time and this probably prompted him to focus on something else.
Paul then recorded the song on his own and released it as a single in the UK on 16th November 1987 and included it on his "All The Best!" compilation released taht same month; it was a Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart.
