Originally formed as a Beatlescover band named Cartoon, they changed musical directions and began performing their own material in nightclubs around the Atlanta area. The response to their music was so good that they were quickly signed to Columbia Records subsidiary Portrait Records by producer Tom Werman, who had worked with Cheap Trick, REO Speedwagon and Mother's Finest. They released two albums for the Portrait label, The Producers and You Make the Heat. The Producers became a regional favorite in the southeastern United States, propelling "What She Does To Me" onto the nationalBillboard Magazinesingles charts. "What's He Got", "Certain Kinda Girl", and "Who Do You Think You Are" had some popularity as music videos on MTV, but did not chart. The band toured extensively in the early 1980s, opening for Cheap Trick, and The Motels. "She Sheila" from their second album was also a popular MTV video. They headlined MTV's New Year's Rockin Eve broadcast in 1982.
Discography
Albums
Aftermath
Despite this success, Portrait Records dropped the band after only two albums. Kyle Henderson became a born-again Christian and left the band shortly after they were dropped to record a solo album for Kerry Livgren's Christian rock label, Kerygma Records and was replaced by future Jellyfish, Umajets, and Sheryl Crow bassist Tim Smith. The next Producers album, Run For Your Life, was released in 1985 on a small Atlanta-based independent label. That album featured a collaboration between The Producers and Kansas, "Can't Cry Anymore," a song which appeared on both Run For Your Life and the 1986 Kansas album Power. The Producers regained a major label contract in the late 1980s with MCA Records and recorded what was to be their fourth album, Coelacanth, but the band was one of several dropped in a 1989 label purge at MCA before the album could be released. Coelacanth was finally released in 2001.
Today
Lead vocal/guitarist Van Temple now moonlights with bands The Rainmen and Reason Y in Atlanta. He also occasionally teaches. Original bass player and vocalist Kyle Henderson resides in Madison, Wisconsin, and recently released a new solo album entitled "Brand New Chance". He also fronts a band called Kyle Henderson's Blue Eyed Soul, a four piece that covers songs by Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Otis Redding, plus modern purveyors of that tradition. Keyboardist Wayne "Famous" McNatt is currently a taxi driver in the Atlanta area and occasionally does session, composer and sound effects jobs. Drummer Bryan Holmes is currently owner and president of Prestige Carpet & Flooring in Jonesboro, Georgia, where he lives with wife and daughters. Although The Producers officially "retired" in 1991, the band continues to reunite for occasional live shows, primarily in the southeastern and mid-western United States.
