Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLV--The Producers: What She Does to Me (The Diana Song)

A million years ago when I first started managing a music store, CBS Records and its affiliates used to send every store a promotional copy of every single they released for public consumption.  As you might imagine, my store received hundreds of promotional 45s every year, and which ever ones the people who worked for me didn't want, I'd take home and my first wife and I, being poor newlyweds with a baby on the way, would listen to each of them for an evening of cheap entertainment.  You'd be surprised though how many of them actually turned out to be decent little singles--just like this week's tune.

The Producers formed in Atlanta, Georgia in 1981 and thanks to some success through the southeastern U.S., were able to cobble together a ten year career.  The band does occasionally reunite for one off affairs in Georgia, but for the most part its members have moved onto other bands/vocations.  The Producers released three albums during their initial run, and had an unreleased album hit the shelves to little fanfare in 2001.  They also still have an unreleased album from 2012 just waiting in the vaults for a little magic to help it see the light of day.  They only had one album and one single chart over the course of their career.  While two of the band's original members are still making music, two have joined the mundane masses, one driving a taxi and the other as the owner of his own cleaning service. 

"What She Does to Me (The Diana Song)" was released in 1981 on the band's cleverly named debut LP, The Producers.  The song reached #61 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album hit #163 on the Billboard 200.  As noted above, these were the only chartings the band ever had...and still two more than I've ever had.

A couple of years after the Producers debuted, Rolling Stone released a record guide, entitled appropriately enough, The Rolling Stone Record Guide.  Under the entry for the Producers, the critic noted that they were the kind of band that made him wish he'd devoted his life to baseball after all...which in light of my love for "What She Does to Me" seems a bit harsh.  Frankly, the song was another in a long line of great 1980's power pop singles, and as the YouTube video notes, is a lost gem from that era.  It's a tale of a woman torn between two lovers (actually based on one of the band members' wife), and the torment of one of her paramours knowing that even when he's with her, his competition is right there, too.  The band has some nice guitar work throughout, the drums drive the single into the fast lane, and the band as a whole does a great job of conveying the angst of falling in love with someone and knowing that no one else makes you feel the way he or she does.  No, the Producers will never make anyone forget the Rolling Stones, but they did put together a hell of a song about the pain of love, and one great song is a hell of a lot more than any Rolling Stone critic ever had.

Liner Notes:  "He's looking over my shoulder/Though I'm with you tonight/He knows that he'll have you tomorrow/And you'll be holding him tight..."

Enjoy:

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