Chris Martin ''didn't like the sound of his voice'' on The Streets' 'Dry Your Eyes'.

The Coldplay front man sung on an early version of the 2004 single, but it was never released because of problems from his band's record company, EMI.

Writing in his book about his musical project, 'The Story of the Streets', Mike Skinner said: ''When I wrote 'Dry Your Eyes' I thought the chorus would work well with Chris singing it, so so I sent it to him. We met up in at Primrose Hill and recorded the vocal, which I was really pleased with.

''But then the guy from EMI said he didn't think the song was a hit, and Chris didn't like the sound of his own voice on it, so that version got pulled.

''Once the song was done, the whole thing changed from being something that was between us, to something that was between our record labels.''

The song was later re-recorded with a different vocalist and became The Streets' biggest hit, reaching number one in the UK singles chart.

Mike added his collaboration with Chris partly came about through Chris' film star wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, because she was a fan of The Streets.

Mike added: ''When I first met them I got the impression that Gwyneth was into my first album.

''We met up a few times after that and talked about me and Chris maybe doing something together.

''I've always been puzzled by how furious some people - mainly music journalists, but not only them - seem to get about Chris' success.''

'The Story of The Streets' is out now.