What Have I Done – Michael Eager
1001 South African Songs You Must Hear Before You Go Deaf.
Before he became Mike Eager and had a number 6 hit on the Springbok Top 20 with 'Just How High', he went under the name Michael Eager and he had 2 Springbok Top 20 hits. The first of these was 'Rock Me To Sleep' which got to number 13. His second one was 'What Have I Done' which managed to get to number 8 and spend 10 weeks on the charts.
If you could imagine a song by Rabbitt that was less rock and more pop, in a sort of 'Beach Baby' (remember that one by First Class) kind of way, then you are getting close to what this 1977 hit sounded like. It has a rocking (as in rocking back and forth on a rocking chair as opposed to grab your air guitar rocking) rhythm to it with a catchy girlie refrain of 'baby, baby ooh baby baby' which joins in on the the chorus of 'baby baby ooh what have I done?'. Between this Michael laments cheating on his baby constantly asking himself 'What have I done?'.
While the song stays mainly in a pop groove, there are hints at the more rockier elements a la Rabbitt with an electric guitar that seems to sneak into the song as it progresses and just starts coming to the fore as it begins to fade out.
Frank Sinatra in his hit, 'My Way' sings 'Regrets, I've had a few' and with the number of 'What Have I Done's in this song, Michael can certainly relate to Ol Blue Eyes as he really regrets what he has done, but one thing he wouldn't have regretted is making this song as it ended up being his second most successful in terms of Springbok top 20 chart success.
Where to find it:
Vinyl: Pop Shop 1 – Various Artists (1977), Music For Pleasure, SRSJ 8013
Credit for the article: John Samson & Brian Currin
For any questions or comments, please contact Ken Levine.