Robson & Jerome return for their third and final number one, and bow out with a 100% chart-topping record. Which is something that can’t be sniffed at. Unlike their records, which can. Because they stink.
What Becomes of the Broken Hearted / Saturday Night at the Movies / You’ll Never Walk Alone, by Robson & Jerome (their 3rd and final #1)
2 weeks, from 3rd – 17th November 1996
It’s more of the same: more granny-baiting covers of sixties classics, more cheap and tacky production, more dodgy vocals… Much more, in fact, because they end things with the first and only triple ‘A’-side to make #1. Three songs, give me strength… (How does a triple ‘A’ even work? It’s simple geometry: discs don’t have three sides! Was this released as a triangle?)
The ‘lead’ single from the three is a cover of Jimmy Ruffin’s ‘What Becomes of the Broken Hearted’. As with last time, and the pair’s take on ‘Up on the Roof’, there is an element of this being a good thing. ‘What Becomes…’ is an all-time classic, and even in this highly diluted version it’s good to see it having a moment on top of the charts. And this isn’t as heinous as some of their other chart-topping moments. The production is quite lush and substantial, and they sensibly rope a gospel choir in to do much of the actual singing.
If only they had left it at that… The Official Charts Company lists just the one song, though maybe they simply don’t have the space to squeeze in three fairly long titles. All other sources have this as a threesome though, and so we’ll have to give the other two a spin. Starting with a case of GBH on The Drifters’ ‘Saturday Night at the Movies’. The synthesisers are set for ‘jaunty’, as Jerome Flynn does his best Johnny Moore high-notes… The less said the better. (I will admit that the video is quite fun…)
We end with a song that’s already been #1 twice and that really didn’t need to return, especially not in a version as lightweight as this. ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ is a technically demanding song and, although the producers try very hard to drown out Robson & Jerome’s reedy vocals with lots of bombast, we can sadly still hear them. You can see why the OCC has been tempted to erase it from history. Elsewhere on their second album, ‘Take Two’, lurk covers of ‘Oh Pretty Woman’, ‘Keep the Customer Satisfied’ and – presumably because Christmas was just around the corner – ‘Silent Night’.
We can perhaps be glad, then, that they decided to end their music careers rather than release any further singles. They had, after all, been reluctant to do it in the first place, and not even the offer of three million pounds from Simon Cowell could persuade them to do a third album. I can forgive them almost everything, music-wise, knowing how much that must have annoyed Cowell. Unfortunately, he discovered an even more lucrative way of unleashing terrible music on the masses. More on that soon…
To be honest, it’s easy to forgive Robson and Jerome most things, as they both seem like decent blokes. Green has been a fixture on British TV ever since, both in acting and in presenting travel and fishing documentaries. Flynn laid-low for a few years, before returning to the spotlight with a scene-stealing turn as Bronn in ‘Game of Thrones’. The pair are, you’ll be very glad to hear, still firm friends.
Up next, a recap. And I have a feeling that this pair may well be up for an award…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
sorry, whilst I’m glad they must have pissed off Cowell by not extending their musical career, I still can’t forgive them for Common People and Wonderwall
Considering all their big hits seemed to be cover songs (I haven’t look at their chart history so I dunno if they had self-penned material hitting the UK Top 10), they probably weren’t making any real money themselves off the success of these singles – besides money from touring – to continue being motivated to keep churning out singles for the pop market.
Yeah not sure how much they made from actual record sales, but they were reluctant to do it in the first place, and Cowell had had to offer them a lot of money even for the first two albums.
Oh, and this is it! They only released three singles (and two albums), and have a 100% chart-topping record.
Kudos to them for not doing anymore classic murders, and especially Jerome Flynn as it was good practice for his Game Of Thrones role, where he did some more killing – though sadly not Ed Sheeran’s career in his guest spot. I’ll be honest GOT is one of my top 3 TV series of all-time, so if the cost of having him in the show was to put up with 3 chart-topping rubbish records – even with Pulp and Wonderwall at 2 instead – it’s not really much of a loss being an iconic number 2 robbed of the top spot, see Vienna for the most famous example and to be near the top of Greatest Number 2 ever…
I had forgotten about Sheeran’s cameo… One of the least necessary and most cringy of all time (this coming from someone who loved GOT!)
Cowell…he is behind some lame sh*t. I never liked him since I saw him on those television shows that I don’t watch…one or two interviews was all it took. He was talking on how he would have never signed Bob Dylan…no you wouldn’t have…you….nevermind.
The one thing I grudgingly admire about Simon Cowell, is how unapologetic he seems to be about the crap he’s unleashed on the world… It’s made him rich, and he doesn’t give a toss!
Oh…he thinks he is wonderful…that I will say. He doesn’t care whatsoever.