The producer Peter Shelley wrote this song long before he decided who would perform it; all he knew was he wanted someone "Who could sing Rock n' Roll, but who looked pretty mean." After he heard Alvin Stardust's demo, he knew he'd found his man.
This was the first release on the independent Magnet record label - it had the catalogue number MAG 1. It was kept from the top of the UK charts by Gary Glitter's "I Love You Love Me Love."
Londoner Alvin Stardust (real name 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. This was his first hit under his new name and it became his most well known recording despite the fact it peaked at #2 and it's follow up "Jealous Mind" topped the charts. As Alvin Stardust, Jewry went on to achieve 7 Top 10 British hits between 1983 and 1984 including 4 altogether written by Shelley. Peter Shelley himself had 2 Top 5 hits in the UK, "Gee Baby" and "Love Me Love My Dog."