Songfacts®:

• In this song, Crow sings from the perspective of a predatory man offering sleazy come-ons to a woman and offering to help her career if she takes him up on it. "Listening to it you should feel slimy and creepy," Crow explained.
• The lyrics are based on real things unscrupulous guys have said to Crow. When she moved from Missouri to Los Angeles and worked as a backup singer, she became a target for some unsavory types in the industry. Crow says she faced sexual harassment every day at this time.
• This wasn't released as a single in the US, but was issued as her second single in the UK, following "Run, Baby, Run." It made little impact at the time, but her subsequent singles (especially "All I Wanna Do") did well on the UK charts, so "What I Can Do for You" was re-released in 1995, well over a year after the album came out. This time, the single made #43 UK.
• Crow has mentioned Frank DiLeo as one of the sexist industry types she worked with. On the Tuesday Night Music Club track "The Na-Na Song," she sings:
  
  Clarence Thomas organ grinder Frank Dileo's dong
  Maybe if I'd let him, I'd have had a hit song
  
  DiLeo, who played the character Tuddy Cicero in the movie Goodfellas, managed Michael Jackson's Bad tour, on which Crow sang backup.