<figure id="attachment_3241558" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3241558" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-3241558" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/60ecc7b7-brian-may.jpg" alt="Brian May" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3241558" class="wp-caption-text">According to Queen guitarist Brian May, the version of the song featuring the late Freddie Mercury&#8217;s signature vocals has never been heard by anyone. (EPA Images pic)</figcaption></figure>
LONDON: Queen guitarist Brian May unveiled on Monday a previously unreleased song by the legendary rock band that &#8220;no one has ever heard&#8221;.
The track &#8211; formally called &#8220;Not for Sale (Polar Bear)&#8221; &#8211; was originally recorded for Queen&#8217;s 1974 album &#8220;Queen II&#8221; but failed to make the final cut.
Aired for the first time at the end of an hour-long Christmas radio special hosted by May, it features what sound like late frontman Freddie Mercury&#8217;s trademark vocals.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a song that goes back a very long way but to my knowledge, no one has ever heard this version,&#8221; May, 78, said when he played the track on Planet Rock radio.
He said it was a &#8220;work in progress&#8221; when it was first recorded in the early 1970s.
&#8220;It will appear on the forthcoming rebuild of the Queen II album next year. But I&#8217;m sneaking this in because I&#8217;m just fascinated to know what people think about it,&#8221; he told listeners.
Formed in 1970, Queen is one of the best-selling groups in pop history, shifting a reported 300 million records worldwide.
Fronted by the flamboyant Mercury, who died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1991, it is remembered for huge hits including &#8220;We Are The Champions&#8221; (1977), &#8220;Crazy Little Thing Called Love&#8221; (1979) and &#8220;Another One Bites the Dust&#8221; (1980), as well as stage performances such as the 1985 Live Aid concert.
Their smash hit single &#8220;Bohemian Rhapsody&#8221; spent nine weeks at the top of the UK music charts in 1975.
&#8220;Not for Sale (Polar Bear)&#8221; had languished in the Queen archives for decades, with references to it on Queen fan websites and elsewhere.
As May noted, a remastered version is set to feature on an upcoming 2026 re-release of the &#8220;Queen II&#8221; album.
A bootleg version of the song may already have circulated by May&#8217;s pre-Queen band, Smile, but that differs from the newly-aired track.
May and drummer and backing vocalist Roger Taylor still perform as Queen with singer Adam Lambert as lead vocalist.

MatchPoint Times

Brian May unveils never-heard Queen song cut from 1974 album

The track ‘Not for Sale (Polar Bear)’ was originally recorded for the band’s album Queen II but did not make the final cut.

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