To make the album, DeVille was joined by many prominent musicians, including Dr. John, David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, Zachary Richard, Jim Gilstrap, Freebo, Efrain Toro, and Jimmy Zavala.

"[1] DeVille brought in Mariachi los Camperos, led by Nati Cano, to play on "Hey Joe."

Trouser Press said about the album, "Backstreets of Desire skillfully draws on DeVille's prior genre explorations to create music that's wholly contemporary while remaining true to the artist's original vision.

It’s here in the breathtaking broken-hearted ballad "Empty Heart" (recorded with an orchestra), the street-savvy rock and soul in "All in the Name of Love," the sexual voodoo funk in Willie Mitchell's "Come to Poppa," the skiffle-tinged "Even While I Sleep," the folksy Caribbean-porch-song-meets-Cuban-son in his reading of Billy Roberts' "Hey Joe," or in his own breezy New Orleans-bordello-music-meets-Spanish-folk epic, "Bamboo Road."

His sell-out performances all over Europe were a signal that this wonderfully complex persona was an "artist" in the popular vernacular and canon.

DeVille said about Shenale in 2008: Producer Philippe Rault said of the album: The cover photo for Backstreets of Desire was taken in a shrine at St. Roch Chapel in New Orleans.

DeVille is shown sitting on the floor of the chapel surrounded by marble thank-you tiles, plaster casts of feet, polio braces, eyeballs, spider and cockroach parts, and other votive offerings.

[8] Backstreets of Desire is dedicated to Doc Pomus, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame songwriter with whom DeVille wrote songs for his Le Chat Bleu and Sportin' Life albums.