Prince (May 10 1988) Lovesexy - Album

Lovesexy is Prince’s tenth studio album, released in May 1988. A spiritually charged, psychedelic pop and funk masterpiece, it was recorded quickly as a direct response to the scrapped Black Album, blending positivity, sensuality, and faith.

RELEASE DETAILS

Artist: Prince

Label: Paisley Park / Warner Bros. Records

Date: May 10, 1988

Catalogue: 9 25720-1

Format: LP

Country: United States (worldwide release)

THE STORY

Lovesexy is a vibrant, optimistic album exploring themes of spirituality, love, and personal growth. Recorded in just seven weeks at Paisley Park Studios, it features Prince playing most instruments himself with select contributions from his band. The album is structured as one continuous musical journey, mixing upbeat funk, pop, and soul with introspective and sexually playful lyrics.

CONTEXT & NOTES

Following the controversial decision to pull The Black Album, Prince delivered Lovesexy as a more positive and spiritually uplifting counterpoint. Though it was his first album since 1981 not to reach the Top 10 in the US, it was a major success in Europe and remains a fan favorite for its joyful, redemptive tone and creative risk-taking.

TRACK LIST

Side One

Eye No (5:47)

Alphabet St. (5:38)

Glam Slam (5:04)

Anna Stesia (4:56)

Side Two

Dance On (3:44)

Lovesexy (5:48)

When 2 R in Love

(4:01) I Wish U Heaven

(2:43) Positivity (7:15)

PERSONNEL Musicians

• Prince — lead and backing vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, percussion, programming

• Sheila E. — drums, percussion, backing vocals

• Boni Boyer — keyboards, backing vocals

• Dr. Fink — keyboards

• Miko Weaver — guitar

• Levi Seacer, Jr. — bass

• Eric Leeds — saxophone

• Atlanta Bliss — trumpet

• Ingrid Chavez — spoken word

• Cat Glover — rap, backing vocals

• Additional musicians on horns and percussion

• 
  

Production

• Prince — producer, arranger

• Susan Rogers, Peggy McCreary — engineers

• Bernie Grundman — mastering

• 
  

PACKAGING HIGHLIGHTS

• Nude photograph of Prince on the front cover

• Gatefold sleeve with lyrics

• Minimalist yet provocative design

• 
  

WHAT THE SLEEVE SHOWS 

The front cover features a now-iconic photograph of a nude Prince sitting among flowers. The back cover displays the full track listing in an elegant, handwritten style against a dark background.

CHARTS America 

Country: Chart | Entry Date | Peak Position | Weeks in Chart

USA: Billboard 200 | May 28, 1988 | 11 | - USA: Billboard Black LPs | - | 5 | -

SINGLES RELEASED

• “Alphabet St.”

• “Glam Slam”

• “I Wish U Heaven”

The opening track, “Eye No” (stylized with an abstract eye symbol featuring simple lines, a black pupil, white iris, black outer border, and five eyebrows), was recorded with the full band: Miko Weaver on guitar, Levi Seacer Jr. on bass, Doctor Fink and Boni Boyer on keyboards, Eric Leeds on saxophone, Atlanta Bliss on trumpet, and Sheila E. on drums. Sheila E. also plays drums on several other tracks and provides backup vocals along with Boyer. Leeds and Bliss contribute horns on most songs, while Ingrid Chavez delivers the intro to “Eye No.” The album is meant to be experienced as a continuous sequence; LP pressings split it into two side-long tracks with no visual markers for individual songs. Early CD copies of Lovesexy present the entire album as a single track, though later editions divide it into nine. It’s also the first Prince album to replace the pronoun “I” with the stylized eye symbol—Romanized as “eye”—in song titles and liner notes, a concept fully embraced later in 1992’s Love Symbol Album.

SOURCES Wikipedia, Billboard, Sleevographia.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE All album artwork, photographs, logos, and original text excerpts remain the property of their respective copyright holders. This entry is a transformative, non-commercial archival summary created for historical documentation and educational reference.