"Excited" is the fourth and final single to be lifted from M People's first album, Northern Soul (1991). It was written by Mike Pickering and Paul Heard. The song peaked at number 29 on the UK Singles Chart. Background After three Top 40 hits, where each single had charted lower than the one before, M People went back into the studio to record some new tracks for a 1992 re-release of their debut album. Two tracks, "Excited" and "Man Smart", were chosen to replace the outgoing "Life" and "Platini". The band planned to release a revised track listing as well, and the track "Excited" was to be the opener, with its fresher, more fun sound. They were looking for a track that would take them from the underground to a more widespread and populist audience as the 1991 version of the album had only charted in the lower echelons of the chart. Critical reception Larry Flick from Billboard wrote that "few dance/pop albums are as consistently potent as this band's U.S. debut, "Elegant Slumming". On its third, top 40 offering, singer Heather Small bounces over a lively, Philly soul-influenced groove with a performance that is, by turns, giddy and hearty. Programmers with a savvy musical ear will feast on the cut's brassy horn flourishes and rollicking piano lines. Meanwhile, dancefloor enthusiasts will subscribe to the bass intensity and percolating breaks." A reviewer from Lennox Herald described it as a "very open and spacious dance track with classy vocal." Alan Jones from Music Week commented that M People are "operating at the more sophisticated end of the dance music spectrum." John Kilgo from The Network Forty viewed the song as "an uptempo jammer". Chart performance When the single was released it sold in excess of 27,000 copies in its first week to enter the chart at 30, after their second Top of the Pops appearance the single sold slightly more (29,000 copies) to climb one place to its peak position of 29, equalling the peak position of the parent album's first single: "How Can I Love You More?" became their fourth consecutive Top 40 hit and second top thirty hit. The song stayed in the Top 40 for three weeks, climbing from its entry position of 30 up to 29 and back down to 35 in its third week. For the final two weeks the single slid down to 53 and