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 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). It has been released on vinyl, cassette and later on CD.
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.
Track listing
Side A
"Ma Baker" (Frank Farian, Fred Jay, George Reyam (Hans-Jörg Mayer)) – 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" (Frank Farian, George Reyam) – 3:57
Side B
"Plantation Boy" (Fred Jay, King) – 4:27
"Motherless Child" (Frank Farian, Liz Mitchell) – 4:58
"Silent Lover" (Frank Farian, Keith Forsey, Fred Jay) – 4:14
"A Woman Can Change a Man" (Frank Farian, Fred 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 .