The Producers were formed in Atlanta in the late-1970s as a Beatles cover band, and initially used the name Cartoon. Soon, their Beatles tribute show was packing clubs and the band had enough clout to start performing their own material. The popularity in the Southeast sector of the US grew quickly and in 1980, CBS/EPIC A&R/Producer Tom Werman signed them to special imprint, Portrait. Werman was riding high as the studio wiz behind popular albums by Cheap Trick, REO, and Mother's Finest.
Werman certainly helped shape their pristine power pop sound in the studio, and the band saw a couple of low charting Billboard hits from their first album (The Producers) in 1981, and their follow-up disc, You Make The Heat, in 1982. The band soon became a fairly regular staple on MTV, and in 1983 they were invited to be a guest performer on MTV's Rockin' New Year's Eve broadcast (which also featured a then up-and-coming act named Duran Duran).
After their 1982 effort, however, Portrait dropped the band, and Henderson left and became a born again Christian. The band carried on and made a few indie LPs before being signed by MCA. No sooner had MCA released the band's big comeback album than the label merged with A&M and dropped several acts, among them the Producers. They broke up in 1991, but get together on semi-regular basis to play high profile shows mostly in the Southeast.