The Friday song (on a Sunday): ‘Why Did You Do it’ by Margaret Singana

I grew up in a small town in the Eastern Cape called Queenstown, now renamed Komani. It was during the time of apartheid and our home was nestled in white suburbia at the bottom of a hill.  A short distance away were the townships. I knew about the white suburbs and the town centre. The townships were another world altogether and as a crazed young music kid, while I knew everything about The Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin and Beach Boys, I knew nothing about the bands and singers that were making music right on my doorstep, where a star was born.

I listened to many covers this week and among them, a cover by one of Queenstown’s greatest, Margaret M’cingana. Margaret had left Queenstown and travelled to Johannesburg to find employment as a domestic worker. Her white employers thought she had a great voice and helped introduce her to record-company people. As her last name was difficult for white people to pronounce, she became Margaret Singana and as her fame grew, “Lady Africa”. 

In the 1970s Singana exploded in the lead role of the musical Ipi Tombi, a piece so politically flawed and patronising that it beggars belief. But while it was black music, copied by white composers to be performed by black people to white audiences (again all part of our awful history) it made Margaret Singana a star – and for me, she was a star from Queenstown.

Around the same time, I heard a track called Why Did You Do it?, which verged on funk but seemed a little too “white”, “soft” and “disco-ey”, by an English band called Stretch. The song needed some funk legitimacy. Step up Margaret Singana, who recorded a version along with less impressive covers of songs by James Brown, Creedence and Aretha Franklin on an album called Tribal Fence.

Why Did You Do it? is a way better version. The production by Patric van Blerk and Julian Laxton pumps, the guitars – courtesy of Rabbitt man Trevor Rabin – stutter and chop, and Singana rides from low and gruff to high and strong. The funk is there too, due in large part to Ramsay Mackay with just the right amount of dance groove.

It’s  a cover I prefer to the original and hope it drives a good mood this weekend. Sadly Singana died impoverished as so many South African artists do, after battling years of ill health and having returned to Queenstown, but she left us some great songs and Why Did You Do it? was one!

I started a music WhatsApp group in 2023. I send one song a week on a Friday, with links to both Apple and Spotify, and an accompanying narrative/capsule piece. You’ll read it here on a Sunday. If you want to engage about a song, get a playlist or just get in touch, email me on markgrosin@gmail.com.

Listen to Why Did You Do it? on Spotify here and Apple Music here.

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