Hello, I'm a newbie here! I'm a big Prince collector and this is one rarity which I still don't have. I have heard that it may not even be an official release - can anyone confirm that it is and how to tell when I see a real copy? I do know that fake copies are out there too.

According to Discogs its real.

https://www.discogs.com/P...se/2788611

CRM said:

Hello, I'm a newbie here! I'm a big Prince collector and this is one rarity which I still don't have. I have heard that it may not even be an official release - can anyone confirm that it is and how to tell when I see a real copy? I do know that fake copies are out there too.

There are a couple of places you can find your answers to questions like this.

1) Discogs.com. Create an account. Use the search, and find the "All Versions" link on an album. You can scroll through all the releases a bit further down on the result page. It will list every 8-track, LP, Cassette, and CD any particular album/song/whatever was issued on. It'll also tell you the catalog number, whether it's a picture disk, record label, official or unofficial, a remaster, a reissue, from a record club, or anything else. The releases are listed by earliest to most recent. You can find out if your picture disk or whatever is legit or not.

2) sleevographia2.free.fr. Whoever runs that page keeps it up to date with vinyl releases, their covers, and similar details as noted above in #1. A bit of seeking and research (literally mere minutes on your part) will render all answers.

I'd like to know the answer to this too. Sleevographia lists it both in the official and Fake categories... Can anyone confirm? I'm assuming it's fake as it's the same company who made the Love Sign picture disc as well right?

Hard to get a definite answer, but there is a major Prince collector who has told me that it was a legit release but has been copied and counterfeited many times. I saw a copy recently with different date matrixes on each side - safe to say that was a fake, but everything else about it was very convincing.

jjam said:

Hard to get a definite answer, but there is a major Prince collector who has told me that it was a legit release but has been copied and counterfeited many times. I saw a copy recently with different date matrixes on each side - safe to say that was a fake, but everything else about it was very convincing.

Thanks for sharing. Well, it's certainly an oddity. Discoleccion also produced the Love Symbol pic disc which is... also fake? Gah, now I'm unsure about all of them!

There is an official Love symbol mexican picture disc vinyl. I bought it when the album came out.

kewlschool said:

There is an official Love symbol mexican picture disc vinyl. I bought it when the album came out.

Not official either I don't think: http://prince.org/msg/7/418747