“Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”? Metaphor. “Zombie”? Zombies are technically all dead, not near dead. “I Saw The Light”? Actually, that one’s about falling in love. There are hundreds of songs about death and dying (and about falling in love). But near-death experiences? To quote the band Climax, precious and few.

Soul II Soul, a cutting-edge group on the dance and club scene in London, started recording songs for their debut album in 1988. “Back To Life” had no title when producers Jazzie B and Nellee Hooper, along with programmer Gota Yashiki, began building the backing track, beat by beat, mixing samples and live drums and funky basslines into a glorious and heavy rhythm.

Once they established the foundation, singer Caron Wheeler was brought in to collaborate on lyrics and add vocals, and she wasn’t just being poetic with the words she came up with. Wheeler had undergone a brush with death — the tunnel vision, moving towards the bright light, the feeling of being welcomed to a better place, all the usual stuff — so her lyrics for this song were literally about coming back to life. She wasn’t necessarily thrilled about coming back, either. So powerful were her positive feelings about the light that she wanted to know why she had to return to earth: Why do you want me back there? What do you need from me?

Despite what Belinda Carlisle was singing about the year before, Wheeler knew heaven wasn’t a place on this earth.

Having completed the track, Jazzie B and Hooper felt the vocals were so amazing that they should stand on their own. So after all their hard work constructing the music, they abandoned it and released “Back To Life” as an a capella track on their debut album, Club Classics Vol. One. But, like the proverbial cat — and like Caron Wheeler — the song had another life left.

When Soul II Soul needed a single to follow up their million-seller “Keep On Moving,” it seemed obvious to the group that “Back To Life” was a banger. Their record company did not agree — not as an a capella track anyway. So back came the beats and the basslines, and Jazzie B and Hooper also decided to add some strings, courtesy of the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra, as a finishing touch.

Upon its release as a single in 1989, “Back To Life” topped the UK chart, as well as the US Dance and R&B/Hip Hop charts. The reinstated beat became a cornerstone of hip hop and was widely imitated over the next few years, coming back to life again and again.

So don’t go into the light! Go into the club … with Soul II Soul.