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
Gordy family 72. A former boxer and jazz record store owner, Berry Gordy Jr. (November 28, 1929 – ), first got involved with producing and writing R&B songs in 1955. Amongst Gordy's earliest songwriting successes were songs he penned as one-third of the songwriting team behind Jackie Wilson's first legion of solo hits, including "Reet Petite", "To Be Loved" and "Lonely Teardrops". By 1959, Gordy, fed up with not being paid royalties for his work with Wilson and other acts, decided to form a record label. He convinced his sister Esther to loan him $800 from the tuition fund his father had