1986 in British music cover of the disco song "Don't Leave Me This Way". The band included singer Jimmy Somerville who had previously enjoyed success with Bronski Beat, and later started a solo career. The Christmas number one single was something of a surprise, a re-issue of Jackie Wilson's 1957 single "Reet Petite". Wilson had died in 1984, but the song been re-issued after being used in a television advert for Levi's, with a new video made of a Claymation version of Wilson. Having first been released 29 years earlier, it broke the record for the longest time between a single being released and
Jackie Wilson Wilson signed a solo contract with Brunswick, Green suddenly died. Green's business partner Nat Tarnopol took over as Wilson's manager (and ultimately rose to president of Brunswick). Wilson's first single was released, "Reet Petite" (from his first album "He's So Fine"), which became a modest R&B success (many years later, an international smash hit). "Reet Petite" was written by Berry Gordy Jr. (another former boxer who was a native son of Detroit), in which co-wrote "Reet Petite" with partner Roquel "Billy" Davis (often referred to as the pseudonym Tyran Carlo) and Gordy's sister Gwendolyn. The trio composed and produced six