If you think of great musical collaborations that never were, the most unlikely of pairings you could possibly put together might be the idea of actor Jim Belushi and late rapper Tupac Shakur collaborating on a version of 'Fly Me To The Moon'. Yet, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, it appears that could very well have been a possibility, once upon a time. On what would have been Tupac's 50th birthday, Belushi recalled details of the musical collaboration that never was.

As well as being one of the top rappers of his time, Tupac was involved in numerous film projects over his tragically cut short career. One of these movies was Gang Related, a 1996 film in which he co-starred with Jim Belushi. The pair didn't get off to the greatest start, with Belushi calling the rapper out for turning up late to a rehearsal, but the bond they then created almost resulted in the most impossible to imagine musical pairings in history. Tupac was obviously known for his music much more than his film roles, whereas Belushi, although having dabbled in rap with his Rapping Jimmy B sketches on Saturday Night Live, will almost certainly never be remembered for his musical contribution to the world in the same way.

Belushi explained in the interview how their unlikely alliance almost came about. "As prolific as he was as a musician, he had never really heard Frank Sinatra," Belushi explained. So I brought him my 'The Golden Years' CD and we listened to it in the trailer. When we hit 'Fly Me to the Moon,' I said to him, "Come on, man, let's write a song." We can do 'Fly Me to the Moon' with you rappin,' a blend with an old ballad and your style of rap."

He continued "He was so impressed by Sinatra. We worked on it in between scenes, and we were talking about it during that sunrise. But he later said, "I can't do it." And I was like, "What do you mean you can't do it?" He said, "It's too melodically beautiful to interrupt. There's just no way. It's too perfect of a song to mess with." My response to him was, "Well, now you get Frank, don'tcha?" We didn't get far into this project, but we toyed with the idea of collaborating. We entertained each other on the set."

Belushi went on to say how he was already a fan of Tupac's music even before they worked together, calling him "a poet" and that "there were a lot of rappers singing about being an MC. It was a lot of "me, me, me." But Tupac was all about the world around him, and it was beautiful and moving." While the pairing really doesn't seem to work on paper, it seems like it would have been almost a certainty to have happened if circumstances had not dictated otherwise.

Ten days after they wrapped filming on Gang Related, Tupac was killed, something which Belushi said was "heartbreaking" for him and reminded him of the death of his brother John, as it was the life of someone ended while they were in their prime and had so much to give. The whole interview can be read at Entertainment Weekly.