REET PETITE
by JACKIE WILSON

Jackie Wilson was born Jack Leroy Wilson Jr. on June 9, 1934 in Detroit, Michigan and was an American soul singer and performer. Reet Petite was co-written by American songwriters Berry Gordy (who also invented Motown), Billy Davis and Gwen Gordy Fuqua, and became Wilson’s first solo hit after leaving The Dominoes the previous year and first reached Number 6 in November 1957.

After a Claymation video had been made using Reet Petite, and was screened on the BBC TV show Arena in 1986, interest renewed in the song and it was reissued at the end of November and climbed the chart to become the UK Official Singles Chart Christmas Number 1 spending five weeks there until mid-January, 29 years after its chart debut. It was also the first posthumous Christmas Number 1 in history as Wilson had died on January 21, 1984, at age 49 from complications of pneumonia.