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'"Reet Petite"' (The Sweetest Girl in Town) is a song made popular by Jackie Wilson.

Contents

Song information

Track lists

Charts

Cover versions

References

Song information

Written by Berry Gordy and Tyran Carlo, a pseudonym of Jackie's cousin Billy Davis^[1], and produced by Carl Davis, the song is one of the classics of rock and roll music. Taking the title from the Louis Jordan song ''Reet, Petite and Gone'', this was Jackie Wilson's first recording as a solo artist. The song peaked at #62 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1957 and reached #6 on the UK singles chart. With the success of the song, Gordy was able to fund the launch of Motown Records. The music video for it features a plastecene model of Wilson, and plastecene singing lips.
In December 1986, more than two years after Wilson's death, the song became a #1 in the UK for four weeks following its use in a commercial for Levi's.^[2] In the commercial, a claymation version of Wilson sings the song. This held the record for the longest time between a songs debut on the chart and it finally reaching number one (29 years, 1 month, 11 days) until it was overtaken by Tony Christie's (Is This the Way to) Amarillo in 2005.

Track lists

Side	Title	Length
'Original release'
A	"Reet Petite (The Sweetest Girl in Town)"	unk
B	"By the Light of the Silvery Moon"	unk
'1986 re-release'
A	"Reet Petite (The Sweetest Girl in Town)"	2:40
B1	"You Brought about a Change in Me"	2:46
B2	"I'm the One to Do It"	2:34

Charts

Chart	Date	Position
Billboard Hot 100	September 1957	#62
United Kingdom	November 1957	#6
United Kingdom	November 1986	#1 (4 weeks)
Ireland	December 21, 1986	#1 [3]
The Netherlands	February 14, 1987	#1 (2 weeks) [2]
Switzerland	March 8, 1987	#3 [5]
Austria	March 15, 1987	#3 [6]
Germany	March 1987	#4 [7]
Norway	February 1987	#5 [8]

Cover versions

★ The song was covered in 1963 by Dee Dee Sharp.

★ The song was covered in September 1964 by Dinah Lee and reached the #1 position in New Zealand ^[9] and a #6 position in Melbourne (Australia did not have a national chart yet). ^[10]

★ This song is mentioned in the lyrics of the Van Morrison song "Jackie Wilson Said" from his Saint Dominic's Preview album.

References

1. Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, 500 nr.1 hits uit de Top 40, page 235, 9023009444 (Book in Dutch)
2. Dutch Hit Facts February 14 (Accessed October 8, 2006)
3. IrishCharts.ie Irish chart search (Accessed: November 2, 2006)
4. Dutch Hit Facts February 14 (Accessed October 8, 2006)
5. Official Swiss Charts (Accessed October 8, 2006)
6. Official Austrian Charts "Reet Petite" page. Note: This is a biweekly chart (Accessed October 8, 2006)
7. Infinity Charts German Top 20 - The Chart Of March 1987 (Accessed November 2, 2006)
8. Norwegian Charts "Reet Petite" page (Accessed October 29, 2006)
9. ABC Australia Dinah Lee artist page. (Accessed October 8, 2006)
10. Australian Pop Archives "Reet Petite" page. (Accessed October 8, 2006)