"Reet Petite (The Sweetest Girl in Town)" (originally subtitled "The Finest Girl You Ever Want to Meet") is a song written by

Berry Gordy Berry Gordy III (born November 28, 1929), also known as Berry Gordy Jr., is an American retired record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and i ...

, Billy Davis, and

Gwen Gordy Fuqua Gwen Fuqua (born Gwendolyn Gordy; November 26, 1927 – November 8, 1999) was an American businesswoman, songwriter and composer, most notably writing hit songs such as " Lonely Teardrops", " All I Could Do Was Cry" and " Distant Lover". She ac ...

, and made popular by Jackie Wilson in his 1957 recording for the Brunswick label. It was his first solo hit after leaving

the Dominoes Billy Ward and his Dominoes were an American R&B vocal group. One of the most successful R&B groups of the early 1950s, the Dominoes helped launch the singing careers of two notable members, Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson. Early life B ...

and, over the years, has become one of his biggest international chart successes. It was the UK Christmas number one in 1986, almost three years after Wilson's death.

History

The song was written by

, and Wilson's cousin Roquel "Billy" Davis (though credited under his pseudonym Tyran Carlo on the record) and produced by Dick Jacobs, and its title was taken from the 1948

Louis Jordan Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the King ...

song "Reet, Petite and Gone". (In jazz lingo, the term "reet" meant "fantastic".) It was Jackie Wilson's first recording as a solo artist. The song peaked at number 62 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in September 1957 and reached number 6 on the UK Singles Chart. With the success of the song, Gordy was able to fund the launch of

Motown Records Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...

. The song was reissued in 1986 following the showing of a

clay animation Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...

video of Wilson singing the song on the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

documentary series ''

Arena An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...

''. The video was directed by Giblets, a

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

-based animation studio. The reissued version proved so popular that in December 1986, almost three years after Wilson's death, the song became a number 1 in the UK for four weeks (selling over 700,000 copies) becoming that year's UK Christmas number one, 29 years after its chart debut.

Track lists

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Other versions

* The song was recorded in September 1964 by Dinah Lee and reached the number 1 position in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and a number 6 position in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

(Australia did not have a national chart at that time).

References

{{Authority control 1957 songs 1957 singles 1986 singles Jackie Wilson songs Dutch Top 40 number-one singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Number-one singles in Finland Number-one singles in the Netherlands Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders) number-one singles UK singles chart number-one singles Songs written by Berry Gordy Songs written by Billy Davis (songwriter) Brunswick Records singles Christmas number-one singles in the United Kingdom