Queen fans got a surprise treat this week in the form of a never-before-seen music video featuring the band’s legendary frontman, Freddie Mercury.
The clip, released Thursday on YouTube and on Mercury’s website, shows the singer-songwriter looking every inch a superstar as he performs a song titled “Time Waits for No One” on the empty stage of London’s Dominion Theatre.
The track is an early version of Mercury’s “Time,” which appeared on the 1986 concept album for Dave Clark’s stage musical of the same name, albeit in a more fully produced form.
Catch the full video below:
Clark, best known as the former leader and drummer of the Dave Clark Five, said he’d kept the footage buried deep in his archives ― until now.
“Freddie asked me, ‘How do you want me to perform this?’” Clark recalled in an interview with Rolling Stone published Thursday. “I said, ‘As a cross between Edith Piaf, Jennifer Holliday and Shirley Bassey.’ He said, ‘Well, dear. I have all the dresses. I can do it perfectly.’”
Mike Moran, the pianist featured on the song, had reportedly never met Mercury prior to their recording session. He went on to collaborate with the singer-songwriter on the 1988 album “Barcelona.”
Mercury, who died in 1991 due to complications from AIDS just one day after publicly announcing he was HIV positive, has re-entered the pop culture dialogue following “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the 2018 Queen biopic starring Rami Malek. Despite mixed reviews, the film raked in more than $900 million at the box office worldwide and won four Academy Awards, including one for Malek’s performance.
Clark said the restored version of “Time Waits for No One” was ready for release last year, but he purposely waited for the film’s buzz to recede so as to not seem like he was cashing in.
“The movie’s been off and on, no disrespect, for over a decade, and I decided it would be wrong to bring it out before the film or during it, so I waited,” he told Rolling Stone.
“The nice thing about the film is it’s Freddie on his own without anybody else, and it shows the emotion of the song,” Clark added. “We all know he’s a great singer, but I don’t think he’s been seen on his own with just a piano like this. It makes you realize how good somebody is.”