Loverboy's Hit Debut Album Gets A 40th Anniversary Reissue

By Karen Bliss

Loverboy’s self-titled debut with a special edition of its iconic album cover has just been released in Canada on red vinyl via Sony Music, and in the US on Amazon, to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Upon release in 1980, it sold more than 700,000 copies in Canada, two million in the US, and four million worldwide.

The 9-track album contains the classics The Kid Is Hot Tonite and Turn Me Loose, as well as Little Girl, the song from which US-born Canadian artist Barbara Astman was inspired to create the artwork by typing the lyrics onto a self-portrait Polaroid as the photo developed. The 2020 vinyl re-release is printed with a full cover emboss on Astman’s typed text.

“Boy did we get lucky in late 1979 to work with the best in the business, Bruce Fairbairn and Bob Rock..... oh and don’t forget Mike Frazer,” frontman Mike Reno said in a press statement. “This record still sounds great.”

Guitarist Paul Dean added, "I remember playing the clubs around Vancouver in ’79-’80, and taking a survey of our fans so they could pick their favourites from the 20 or so songs we were performing. Here they are, in hi-def."

Inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2009, Loverboy — rounded out by original members Doug Johnson (keys) and Matt Frenette (drums) — has been managed by Jonathan Wolfson of California-based Wolfson Entertainment since 2011.   

“I’ve been a fan of their music since the eighties,” he tells FYI, “so it was a trip meeting them for the first time.  They’re legends, with 4 out of 5 original members, so it was a no brainer when I first met Paul Dean at a restaurant in the Sheraton at LAX.”

Wolfson also manages Hall & Oates, Huey Lewis and the News, and The Tubes.  “These artists are engrained in my DNA, probably since I’m a Gen X’er who grew up glued to MTV.”