Ian Levine's very first recording project. Ian Levine was a young DJ who became famous for the whole Northern Soul phenomenon in the UK in the early 70s, and it lead him wanting to record new Northern Soul-style tunes for this market. He managed to find a guy who believed enough in Ian to give him a budget to record 4 songs on US soul group The Exciters that Levine had previously met in England.
Levine flew to New York in February 1975. The first song he ever recorded was his own composition, Reaching For The Best.
Said Levine: \"Bob Relf had previously recorded this hugefloor-filling record, called “Blowing My Mind to Pieces.” And so (another Northern Soul DJ) Simon Soussan put out this record sales list, containing Bob Relf and a song called “Reaching For The Best’”, declaring it to be even better than “Blowing My Mind To Pieces”, but the catch was that there was only just the one copy available, costing £35. At the bottom of the list it clearly stated the following words, “You must state alternatives because there are no refunds if your first choice is not available.” So obviously everybody wanted this Bob Relf record. But it didn’t even exist. He had totally made the entire title up. It was a cynical scam, just to get people to send their money in, and once they had done so, he would give them any old rubbish that he had lying around, as a replacement. So I thought “Fuck you,” and I called my first ever recording Reaching for the Best by the
Exciters.\"
While Love You Baby would be Levine's very first single to be released (May 1975), Reaching For The Best hit #31 in the UK charts in September 1975 and Levine got the green light to record another four tracks on the group. He flew back in November 1975 to record these and complete the album. Three more singles followed, You're Gonna Make Me Love You (a cover of Sandi Sheldon's Northern Soul anthem) in November 1975, Suffering February 1976, and Swallow Your Pride in June that year, but none of them could repeat the success of Reaching For The Best.
Levine re-recorded the song with original lead singer Brenda Reid for his Nightmare label in 1988, a new song Disintegrated came out on the Passion label in 1991, and an additional three new tracks in 1992. The tracks remained unreleased for another 3 years until they were released on the Hot Productions compilation The Best Of The Exciters.
