Robson And Jerome
Unassisted melody? Robson Green (left) and Jerome Flynn On the X Factor, Simon Cowell makes a fortune out of telling people they can't sing. Yet we can reveal that the stars who helped make his name, Robson and Jerome, themselves proved a little lacking in the vocal department. An additional three singers had to be used to keep the pair in tune on their first hit, Unchained Melody. As well as kick-starting Cowell's flagging career, the song became an overnight sensation after actors Robson Green and Jerome Flynn performed it in 1995 during an episode of the military drama Soldier, Soldier.
It raced to the top of the charts and became the biggest-selling single of the decade. Unchained Melody, previously a hit for Jimmy Young, the Righteous Brothers and many more, was number one for seven weeks, sold 1.8million copies and raked in £17million for the record company BMG. When Cowell persuaded the actors to perform it, a string of bad business decisions had left him living with his parents. But its success transformed him into one of the world's most powerful music executives and helped him launch Pop Idol and X Factor, the latest series of which finished last weekend. He added, however: 'Robson and Jerome came into the studio and we did the vocals together. So they are singing on the record without a shadow of a doubt.
'In all sorts of recording contexts you have to look at the vocal and if it's not quite right you have to put it right. In this case we employed some backing singers to help repair some aspects of the vocal. 'It wasn't about being great singers. I've worked with loads of pop stars where the singing side of their attributes was the least important. 'The way they look, the way they were, the things they represented were sometimes more important to the man in the street.' Des Dyer, now 60, failed to benefit financially from the hit and now lives in a modest £300,000 detached house in Northampton.
Stock, considered the most successful producer of all time with 100 top 40 UK hits, has admitted having a gagging order placed on Dyer after he threatened to reveal his role, saying 'it was going to blow the whole project apart'. Dyer's wife Janice said: 'It was the kiss of death for him. We were going to get done if he spoke about it.
I'm not saying anything more. We don't want to lose our house.'
Watch Unchained Melody by Robson & Jerome online at vevo.com. Discover the latest music videos by Robson & Jerome. Watch videos & listen free to Robson & Jerome: Unchained Melody, Saturday Night At The Movies & more. Robson & Jerome were an English pop duo, featuring TV.
Robson and Jerome went on to sell a total of 15million singles, albums and videos. At no point since their music careers ended has either man revealed the truth about their lack of singing prowess.
They have both now returned to acting full-time. Green now stars in the ITV series Wire in the Blood, while Flynn has been in several films including Best, in which he played footballer Bobby Charlton. Spi Serial Flash Programmer Schematic. Simon Cowell, who is now worth £110million, talks about working with Robson Green and Jerome Flynn in his autobiography, I Don't Mean To Be Rude. He recalls: 'They made me my first million, which was fantastic, not necessarily because of the money but because for the very first time people began to take me seriously.' Yesterday Cowell's spokesman Max Clifford said he could not be contacted as he was on holiday in Barbados.