Jackie Wilson Said It Was Reet Petite
By: Frank Mastropolo
Tags: Rhythm And Blues, Race, Jackie Wilson, Van Morrison, Rock

Wait, he said what?

Van Morrison in Newcastle, Northern Ireland August 23, 2015. Photo by ArtSiegel via Wikicommons

In early 1972, Van Morrison went into San Francisco’s Pacific High Studios to record a song his band had performed only once before the session. It would appear on Saint Dominic’s Preview, Morrison’s sixth studio LP. The album comes roaring out of the gate with the tune: “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile).”

“Jackie Wilson Said” is a stew of the Irish singer’s influences and a tribute to Mr. Excitement, R&B legend Jackie Wilson. Famous for hits like “Lonely Teardrops” and “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher,” Wilson was a dynamic performer whom Morrison has credited as an influence on his singing style.

By 1957, Wilson had for four years been a member of Billy Ward and His Dominoes, an R&B vocal group; he then decided to quit and go solo. Wilson’s first hit, released in August 1957, was “Reet Petite (The Sweetest Girl in Town).” Written by Berry Gordy, Billy Davis and Gwen Gordy Fuqua, its profits would help establish Gordy’s Motown label.

“Reet Petite (The Sweetest Girl in Town)” by Jackie Wilson

Reet petite, a superlative meaning “fantastic,” was part of the jargon of the jazz age. The writers borrowed the phrase from bandleader Louis Jordan, who dominated the jazz and R&B charts in the 1940s with comedic cuts he’d written like “Reet, Petite, and Gone.”

“Reet, Petite, and Gone” by Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five

Jordan’s song became the title of a 1947 race film, movies produced for Black audiences that featured Black actors. Jordan starred in Reet, Petite, and Gone, performing tunes like “Let the Good Times Roll” and “Wham, Sam (Dig Those Gams).”

“Diane” by the Bachelors

Morrison salted “Jackie Wilson Said” with other musical references. “I’m in heaven when you smile” is not from a Jackie Wilson song; it is the signature line of “Diane,” a standard written by Ernö Rapée and Lew Pollack for the 1927 film 7th Heaven. Originally a silent film, 7th Heaven was re-released later that year with a musical track. Though covered by Mario Lanza and Sergio Franchi, Morrison is likely tipping his fedora to the version by the Bachelors, an Irish vocal group whose “Diane” on Decca Records was a Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1964. That same year Morrison and Them, Decca labelmates, recorded “Gloria.”

“Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile)” by Van Morrison

Despite its power and exuberance, the single barely dented the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. Morrison said in Inarticulate Speech of the Heart that the raucous R&B big band arrangement of “Jackie Wilson Says” was quite simple when first written: “That came with just voice and guitar first . . . I was just singing the sax riff.”

“‘Jackie Wilson Said’ was totally disorganized,” recalled guitarist Doug Messenger in Uncut. “He didn’t know where anything went, and no one seemed to know what to do with it. Van went away and the band worked on the basic structure. When he came back we went through it a couple of times and he was real happy because all of a sudden it seemed to be making sense. He said, ‘I think it’s coming together,’ which is what he always said when he felt it was working.

“I remember he said to the drummer, Ricky Shlosser, ‘When I sing “boom boom boom,” hit the tom and the kick drum at the same time.’ We ran through it once or twice, and the first recorded take is what’s on the album. It was all over the place, but somehow it worked. Even when he ad-libbed at the end—’One more time’—somehow we all kept it together. At the end, Van was smiling like a Cheshire cat. ‘I think we got it!’ We tried a second take and—of course—it all fell apart.”