Love for Sale is the second studio album by Euro-Caribbean group Boney M. The album includes the hits "Ma Baker" and "Belfast". It also includes three covers: "Love for Sale" (by Cole Porter), "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" (by Creedence Clearwater Revival), and "Still I'm Sad" (by The Yardbirds).
This was the last Boney M. album without different edits on LP and cassette like Nightflight to Venus and Oceans of Fantasy.
Artwork The standard cover art features the male member Bobby Farrell "naked [with] a futuristic golden thong" chaining female members, resembling African sexual slaves. American label Atlantic Records found the cover "raunchy", so they used the standard back cover of a vinyl sleeve featuring the band wearing clothes as the alternative front cover of American and Canadian edition. One of the female group members, Liz Mitchell, told The Sydney Morning Herald:They wanted to photograph us all totally naked in chains with [band member Bobby Farrell] standing over us like it was bondage[...] I wept—trust me. When they showed us the costumes, it was just heavy gold chains.
The front cover of the South Korean vinyl edition features the band in one live performance, and the back cover of the edition features the band in a studio photo session.http://farianmania.blogspot.com/2011/05/rare-editions-of-boney-m.html (South Korean release: front, back)
Track listing Side A "Ma Baker" (Frank Farian, Fred Jay, George Reyam) – 4:36 "Love for Sale" (Cole Porter) – 4:47 "Belfast" (Jimmy Bilsbury, Drafi Deutscher, Joe Menke) – 3:31 "Daddy Cool" (U.S. edition only) from the previous album Take the Heat off Me – 3:27 "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" (John Fogerty) – 2:40 "Gloria, Can You Waddle" (Farian, Reyam) – 3:57
Side B "Plantation Boy" (Jay, King) – 4:27 "Motherless Child" (Farian, Liz Mitchell) – 4:58 "Silent Lover" (Farian, Keith Forsey, Jay) – 4:14 "A Woman Can Change a Man" (Farian, Jay) – 3:33 "Still I'm Sad" (Jim McCarty, Paul Samwell-Smith) – 4:34
Personnel Liz Mitchell – lead vocals (tracks A2, A4, B1, B2, B4, B5), backing vocals Marcia Barrett – lead vocals (tracks A3, B3), backing vocals Frank Farian – lead vocals (A5), backing vocals Linda Blake – voice of "Ma Baker" on A1 Bill Swisher – speaker voice on A1 The Rhythm Machine – musicians Gary Unwinn – bass guitar Keith Forsey – drums Todd Canedy – drums Nick Woodland – guitar Johan Daansen – guitar Thor Baldursson – keyboards The Black Beautiful Circus – performers on tracks A5 and B5
Production Frank Farian – producer Stefan/Stephen Klinkhammer – arranger, conductor Christian Kolonovits – arranger Johann Daansen – arranger Thor Baldursson – arranger Fred Schreier – sound engineer Hartmut Pfannmüller – sound engineer John Lund – sound engineer Michael Lammert – sound engineer Recorded and mixed at Union Studios, Munich, and Europe Sound Studios, Offenbach.
Charts
Weekly charts + Weekly chart performance for Love for Sale Chart (1977–79) Peakposition Argentinian Albums5 Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)27 Belgian Albums (HUMO)1 Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)1 Italian Albums (Musica e dischi) 3
Year-end charts + 1977 year-end chart performance for Love for Sale Chart (1977) Position Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)3 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)10 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)19 Chart (1978) Position+ 1978 year-end chart performance for Love for Sale German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)40
Certifications and sales
Reissued 1994: CD, BMG 74321 21270 2 2007: CD, Sony BMG Music Entertainment 88697082612 2011: Boney M. Original Album Classics, 5 CD, Sony Music 88697928702 2017: Boney M. Complete, 9 LP, Sony Music 88985406971
References
External links Rate Your Music, detailed discography Discogs.com, detailed discography