title: Get specific element before THIS with jquery
body: <p>This really sounds simple, so i'm not sure where am I stuck.
  I have a form which I manually validate. after I check the radio buttons to be as required, I need to get the label above this element.
  Here is the HTML. I cannot change the markup as this code is an inheritance and part of a bigger process.</p>
  
  <p>So this is my HTML:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;label&gt;Do you market on? : &lt;/label&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;
      &lt;label&gt;Plenty of Fish:&lt;/label&gt;
      &lt;span href="#" style="float:  left; margin-right: 10px;"&gt;
          &lt;input type="radio" class="required" name="data[SignupAnswer][100][answer]" value="yes" /&gt;Yes
      &lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span href="#" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"&gt; 
          &lt;input type="radio" class="required" name="data[SignupAnswer][100][answer]" value="no" /&gt;No
      &lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;input type="hidden" name="data[SignupAnswer][100][signup_question_id]" value="100"&gt;
      &lt;input type="hidden" name="data[SignupAnswer][100][class]" value="bool"&gt;
      &lt;input type="hidden" name="data[SignupAnswer][100][required]" value="0"&gt;
      &lt;input type="hidden" name="data[SignupAnswer][100][question]" value="Plenty of Fish"&gt;
  &lt;/li&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I find the first radio, and then I need to find the label above it called "Plenty of Fish".</p>
  
  <p>I tried with .prev(), and with .closest(), both with ('label'), but both didn't return an actual element but instead this object:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[prevObject: jQuery.fn.jQuery.init[1], context: &lt;input&gt;, selector: ".next(li)"]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Maybe someone can explain to me why I get this and not an element? and give me an idea how to get the required element?
  Thanks!</p>