“My Coo Ca Choo” – Single by Alvin Stardust from the album The Untouchable.
B-side “Pull Together”
Released in 1973
Songwriter: Peter Shelley.
The song was written, sung, and recorded by Peter Shelley, using the glam rock name Alvin Stardust. Although he had already appeared as the original Alvin Stardust on the Lift Off television program, Shelley was surprised when the record went straight into the chart the following week. As he had no desire to become his own stage name creation, he and Levy both agreed that if this act were to become more than just a one-hit wonder, then a “face” was required to be, and perform as, Alvin Stardust. The ideal person appeared, Bernard William Jewry, who at the time performed under the name Shane Fenton. The new “Stardust” then appeared on BBC Television’s Top of the Pops just as the record had entered the UK Top 30, before finally reaching number 2. Shelley then followed up with a string of hits for Stardust, including “Jealous Mind”, which went to number 1 in the UK in March 1974.
Alvin Stardust (Bernard Jewry) first saw chart action in the UK in 1961 as Shane Fenton. Although Jewry was the vocalist with Shane Fenton and the Fentones, he was in fact the second singer to bear that name, the first having died suddenly before the group’s success. After their final and biggest hit “Cindy’s Birthday” reached UK #19 in 1962, Jewry went into management, but returned in 1973 as leather-clad Alvin Stardust.
“My Coo Ca Choo” was his first hit under his new name and it became his most well known recording despite the fact it peaked at #2 and its follow-up, “Jealous Mind,” topped the UK chart. As Alvin Stardust, Jewry went on to achieve seven Top 10 British hits between 1973 and 1984, including four altogether written by Shelley. Peter Shelley himself had two Top 5 hits in the UK: “Gee Baby” and “Love Me Love My Dog.”
