In 1984, Simon agreed to produce a record by a young singer-songwriter, Heidi Berg. Berg, who had played in the house bands for "Saturday Night Live" and "The New Show", was introduced to Simon by television producer Lorne Michaels. As a reference for how she wanted her record to sound, Heidi loaned Simon a bootlegged tape of "mbaqanga", street music from Soweto, a poor black township in Johannesburg. Simon described it as "very good summer music, happy music" that reminded him of 1950s rhythm and blues. He began improvising melodies over it as he listened in his car.