The long, hot summer of 1989 belonged to Soul II Soul<\/strong><\/a>. The UK collective\u2019s colossal hit \u201cBack To Life (However Do You Want Me)\u201d reached No 1 in the UK and No 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100, selling a million copies in the US alone. But chart positions and sales figures can\u2019t give a true impression of how ubiquitous \u201cBack To Life\u201d was. It was the moment when the sound of London\u2019s underground club scene went mainstream \u2013 when a group who came of age around the capital\u2019s sound system culture, blues parties and illegal warehouse raves were suddenly ruling the radio airwaves, blasting out of car stereos and boomboxes all over the world.<\/p>\n \u201cBack To Life\u201d took influences from soul, reggae, dub, house, new jack swing and hip-hop, blended them and put a distinctively London and defiantly DIY twist on it. The track became a touchstone for club culture and, unsurprisingly, remixers all over the world were eager to put their stamp on it. In 1993, a white label 12\u201d appeared featuring an epic, jazz-tinged, seven-and-a-half-minute house remix of the track from legendary New York production duo Masters At Work, aka \u2018Little\u2019 Louie Vega and Kenny \u2018Dope\u2019 Gonzalez. MAW\u2019s euphoric remix gave the club classic a new lease of life and showed how the track resonated with cultures a long way from its London roots.<\/p>\n Soul II Soul recognised the power of the remix and included it on their 1993 hits and remixes compilation Volume IV \u2013 The Classic Singles 88-93<\/em>. More recently, the MAW remix was selected to open RE:VERSAL 001<\/strong><\/a>, the first in a series of 12\u201ds curating and reissuing classic, rare and collectable dance music from the late 80s to now.<\/p>\n This ageless dancefloor filler was originally an a cappella track by vocalist Caron Wheeler tucked away towards the end of Soul II Soul\u2019s debut album Club Classics Vol I<\/em>. Wheeler had first come into the orbit of Soul II Soul when founder member Jazzie B heard a tape of her singing and invited her to sing backing vocals on their 1988 single \u201cFeel Free.\u201d The song was an underground club hit, and, impressed by Wheeler\u2019s audition on backing vocals, Jazzie B asked her to sing lead on a new track, \u201cKeep On Movin\u2019\u201d. Wheeler seized her moment, though she didn\u2019t realise that initially, as she told NME<\/em>\u2019s Sean O\u2019Hagan in September 1989, \u201cI wasn\u2019t satisfied with it. I\u2019d had to wait 12 hours to lay it down, and I was only on the second take when Jazzie went \u2018That\u2019s it.\u2019 I begged him to let me do another cut, but he maintained he\u2019d heard something in the grooves that he\u2019d connected with.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Jazzie\u2019s instincts proved correct and \u201cKeep On Movin\u2019\u201d became Soul II Soul\u2019s breakthrough hit, reaching No 5 in the UK and No 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also led to Wheeler becoming a full member of the collective and paved the way for her soul-searching, stripped-back meditation, \u201cBack To Life\u201d on Club Classics Vol One<\/em>. But the song might\u2019ve remained as a moment of reflective respite on the album, were it not for the input of a sound engineer. \u201cThe arrangement for \u2018Back To Life\u2019 came after Arabella Rodriquez, the sound engineer, and I were playing back the tapes,\u201d Wheeler told The Guardian<\/em> in 2012<\/a><\/strong>. \u201cShe thought if we brought the funky beats in before the bridge, almost at the start when it\u2019s just me singing, it would sound better. Jazzie and our producer Nellie [sic] Hooper walked into the room at that exact moment and said: \u2018Right, let\u2019s do it.\u2019\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201cBack To Life\u201d represented a new dawn in Black British music and proof that dance music could have sophistication and poignancy. And it could all be traced back to his formative years working on sound systems. \u201cWhen you nurture a sound,\u201d Jazzie told The Observer<\/em> in October 1989, \u201cAnd build the system yourself, like Soul II Soul, you know your speakers very well. But then you need to know your studio monitors, your mixing and cutting and every separate stage of record production. And, more important than all of this, is giving it that emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n Years later, he looked back with pride and some modesty at the song. \u201cEverything about this single was magic,\u201d Jazzie told The Guardian<\/em> in 2012, \u201cWe weren\u2019t trying to follow any trend or fit into any category \u2013 we were just doing our own thing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n