Brunswick US (1957) 9-55024 Vogue Coral UK (1957) Q 72290 SMP UK (1985) SKM 3 BR Music Belgium (1985) 1245095 Columbia US (1987) 07329 Carrere France (1987) 72012
"Reet Petite (The Sweetest Girl in Town)" (originally subtitled "The Finest Girl You Ever Want to Meet") is a song written by
Berry Gordy,
Billy Davis, and
Gwen Gordy Fuqua, and made popular by
Jackie Wilson in his 1957 recording for the
Brunswick label. It was his first solo hit after leaving
the Dominoes 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
Berry Gordy,
Gwen Gordy Fuqua, and Wilson's cousin
Roquel "Billy" Davis[1] (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 song "Reet, Petite and Gone". (In jazz lingo, the term "reet" meant "fantastic".)[2] 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.[3]
The song was reissued in 1986 following the showing of a
clay animation video of Wilson singing the song on the
BBC Two documentary series Arena.[4] The video was directed by Giblets, a
London-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.[5]
Track lists
Side
Title
Length
Original release
A
"Reet Petite (The Finest Girl You Ever Want to Meet)"
The song was recorded in September 1964 by
Dinah Lee and reached the number 1 position in
New Zealand[32] and a number 6 position in
Melbourne (Australia did not have a national chart at that time).[33]
^Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, 500 nr.1 hits uit de Top 40, page 235, 9023009444 (Book in Dutch)
^"Jackie Wilson Said It Was Reet Petite". Medium. January 22, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2023. meaning "fantastic," was part of the jargon of the jazz age. The writers borrowed the phrase from bandleader Louis Jordan,