Mercury vocal track stream released

A track featuring late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury has been released.

Little Freddie Goes To School was created by Irish composer Stuart Leathem in conjunction with producer Dave Richards, and includes vocal tracks recorded during Mercury’s 1988 Barcelona sessions.

It premiered at the Official Freddie Mercury Birthday Party in Montreaux, Switzerland in September, with a stream now available to mark this week’s World AIDS Day.

The track takes the singer’s vocals from When This Old Tired Body Wants To Sing – a jam recorded with producer Mike Moran – and The Golden Boy, which appeared on the Barcelona album featuring soprano Montserrat Caballe. Esther Trousdale guests on the release.

Proceeds and royalties donated to the Mercury Phoenix Trust – the HIV/AIDS charity set up in the frontman’s name.

Leathem said: “I don’t write many songs – usually big modern-classical Mike Oldfield type works. I am, however, a big admirer of Freddie, and I was very lucky to call Dave my friend.”

It’s available to purchase via iTunes.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald newspapers, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.