Who sang tainted love in the 80s

Some songs seem so ingrained in the decade in which they were recorded that it may come as a surprise to discover they're actually a cover version of an older song. Such was the case with Soft Cell's "Tainted Love", released in 1981. Given that we were hearing a lot of New Wave and/or British hits on the U.S. charts in the '80s, I assumed that the song was written at that time. It actually originated around the time of Beatlemania and Motown (don't blame me—I can't be an expert on everything about the 20th century; I started this blog to learn as much as my readers!) Yep, we've all been living a lie..."Tainted Love" was recorded by Gloria Jones in 1964 and released in 1965 as the B-side of her single "My Bad Boy's Comin' Home." Both songs were considered commercial flops -- and it probably didn't help that "Tainted Love" was regulated to the B-side. It was written by Ed Cobb, a songwriter and music producer that went on to write or co-pen other hits such as "Dirty Water" by the Standells and "Heartbeat" by Gloria Jones. Cobb originally offered "Tainted Love" to the Standells, but they passed on it. Jones, by the way, is often most known for being the girlfriend of T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan up until his death in an automobile accident 1977 (Jones was driving the car and suffered severe injuries.) She was a member of T. Rex during the mid '70s and had a son with Bolan. But she also had serious songwriting chops, composing hits for The Supremes, Junior Walker, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and many other entertainers.

Although "Tainted Love" failed to get any attention or airplay when it was first released, it found new life as a nightclub standard during the Northern Soul music craze of England in the 1970s. In fact the song was so popular among the Northern Soul crowd that Jones was declared the "Northern Queen of Soul." It was sometime during this time that Marc Almond, Soft Cell's lead singer, heard the song and expressed interest in recording a cover version. The band's producer, Mike Thorne, wasn't impressed with Jones' version; he considered it too "frantic" and more suited for a dance floor. So the song and tempo was slowed down and recorded in a different key to pair better with Almond's voice. As most of us know, the cover version was a huge hit, released as an A-side single in 1981 and reaching number one on the UK charts fairly rapidly (the highest it reached on the U.S. charts was number eight by 1982.) Extended versions of the song included a section of the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go." After discovering Jones' version, I honestly have to say I prefer it over Soft Cell's. It has a jaunty Motown beat to it that is very reminiscent of "Good Thing" by the Fine Young Cannibals. And the original music video of Soft Cell's version is just plain bizarre and creepy. It seems the little girl in the video is perhaps the slave's/servant's child and the lead singer is taking out his woman's unfaithfulness on the innocent girl? Well, we'll never figure the '80s out. There was a re-released 1991 music video (not available to view in the U.S.) that is not much better. The newfound popularity of "Tainted Love" in the '80s led to more cover versions including one by Marilyn Manson and has also been sampled in Rihanna's "SOS." Here's Jones' version followed by Soft Cell's...let me know which one you prefer!

It took nearly 20 years, some cigarettes and a white British duo to make Gloria Jones' "Tainted Love" - one of the finest Northern soul songs of all time - a real hit.

Jones, an Ohio-born minister's daughter, was nearly out of her teens when songwriter/producer Ed Cobb picked her to record some songs he'd penned. One of them was a dancefloor-ready heartache tune called "Tainted Love," a song Jones admitted she didn't prefer. It was relegated to the B-side of a single, and Jones moved on; by the late '60s, she was a staff songwriter for Motown, penning great, emotional songs for The Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight & The Pips (who took a Jones co-write, "If I Was Your Woman," to the Top 10 of the U.S. pop charts).

There seemed to be no future for "Tainted Love" until fate intervened: according to Jones, a soldier stationed in England traded a copy of the single for some cigarettes. That single ended up in the hands of a local DJ, who brought it to a Northern soul revival night. Audiences couldn't get enough of it - and by chance, Jones had moved to England, to sing back-up vocals for glam rockers T. Rex. In 1976, a year after Jones gave birth to a son with the band's frontman Marc Bolan, the pair collaborated on a new recording - but it did not chart in England, either.

But those Northern soul nights attracted plenty of listeners and new fans. One of them was Marc Almond, an aspiring singer working at a club who'd fallen for "Tainted Love" and incorporated it into the set of his band, Soft Cell. Recorded and released as a medley with a Motown cover (The Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go"), their synth-heavy version was a smash on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching No. 1 in England and No. 8 in America.

From then on, "Tainted Love" was hard to ignore. It was later covered by Marilyn Manson in 2001, and Rihanna sampled Soft Cell's version for her chart-topping single "SOS" in 2006. But it was Jones who put the song on the path to immortality.

This is a cover of a 1964 song by the American soul singer Gloria Jones, whose original version was released as the B-side of her single "My Bad Boy's Comin' Home." A club DJ named Richard Searling picked up a copy in Philadelphia and in 1973 started playing it in his sets at Va Va's, a popular club in Bolton, England that was very influential on the UK northern soul circuit. The song found new life, and Jones recorded a new version in 1976 that was released on her album Vixen. This version was produced by her boyfriend, Marc Bolan of T-Rex (Jones joined the group as a backup singer and keyboard player in 1974). Jones was driving the car (a Mini) at the time of the accident that killed Bolan in Barnes Common, South London in 1977. This was devastating to Jones on both a personal and professional level, and her career never recovered. She later started the Marc Bolan School of Music in Sierra Leone.
This was written by Ed Cobb, who was the manager of the Standells and the Chocolate Watchband, for whom he also wrote songs, including "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White." Cobb was also a member of the Four Preps, and wrote songs for Brenda Holloway, including "Every Little Bit Hurts." >>
Suggestion credit:
Nick - London, England
Soft Cell is the duo of Marc Almond (vocals) and David Ball (instruments), who met in 1979 when they were students at Leeds Art College. They embraced electronic music, and worked to give it a less robotic sound, which proved successful. Early on, they performed inside a white padded cell with pink and blue bars as part of their stage act.
The duo started recording this as a "throwaway cover song." The choices were "Tainted Love" or a Frankie Valli tune, "The Night."
In the book 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, Marc Almond called this song "A mixture of cold electronics with an over-passionate, over-exuberant, slightly out of key vocal." Almond recalls, "Dave (Ball) introduced me to the record and I loved it so much and we wanted an interesting song for a encore number in our show. Dave loved northern soul and it was a novelty to have an electronic synthesizer band doing a soul song. When we signed with our record company, they wanted to record it. They told us to put bass, guitar and drums on it as they said it was too odd. They put it out anyway and the next thing it was gathering radio play and then it was #1. I was fascinated that it was originally by Gloria Jones, the girlfriend of Marc Bolan and I'd always been a T-Rex fan."
A variety of electronic instruments were used on this track. The bass was generated with a Korg Synthe-Bass that David Ball used at live shows (the B-52s used the same instrument to create the bass in "Rock Lobster"). The whip-crack sounds were made on hand-held synth-drums, and the piano sound came from a Synclavier.
The song is about a toxic relationship, with the singer realizing he's got to leave it. "I love you though you hurt me so," he sings, as he struggles to move on.
The song's writer, Ed Cobb, told Blender magazine: "I had a lover for whom you could say wasn't a good individual. I tried to go into her head and write a song from her standpoint. Once the word 'tainted' had popped into my head, the song was written very quickly, probably 15 minutes."
As AIDS began to spread, this song took on new meaning. Marc Almond said: "It was the first time we'd heard about this then-unnamed disease that was affecting gay men in America. It wasn't an intentional tie-in, but as the record hit the American charts, it took on this other meaning."
Almond is gay, but his record company had him keep that under wraps.
In the US, Soft Cell is a one-hit wonder, but they did very well in the UK, scoring many other hits like "Bed Sitter," "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" and "Torch." Their second-biggest hit in the US is "What!," which reached #101 in 1982.
In 1981, this was Britain's best-selling single. It re-charted there in May 1991, hitting #5.
This song was released in various versions with Soft Cell's cover of the Supremes hit "Where Did Our Love Go." The original single has the 2:39 "Tainted Love" on the A-side with "Where Did Our Love Go" as the flip, but other single releases featured the two songs segued together as the A-side. The 3:58 edit is the one most often heard on the radio, but a 12" single with the combined songs running 8:57 was also released.
Marc Almond's vocal is the first take he recorded. That take was actually a run-through so they could tweak the settings, but it had just the right emotion, so that was the one they used.
This was used in a Levi's commercial where the sound of an EKG in an operating room starts to sound like the song and the staff begins singing along.
Gloria Jones has said that she considers the Soft Cell version to be the best one. "I loved the emotion in his voice," she said. "Their version was far better than mine."
This reached #1 in 17 different countries. In the US, it spent 43 weeks on the Top 100 chart, which was a longevity record at the time. >>
Suggestion credit:
Adam - Dewsbury, England, for above 2
Marilyn Manson covered this in 2001 for the film Not Another Teen Movie. Their version did well in America but was especially popular in the UK, where it went to #5. At the Glastonbury Festival in 2002, Mark Almond jokingly said, "This is a Marilyn Manson song" before performing it.
Manson's version comes with a video based on Not Another Teen Movie with appearances by the stars, including Chris Evans, Chyler Leigh and Jaime Pressly. >>
Suggestion credit:
Adam - Dewsbury, England
Rhianna's sampled this on her 2006 song "S.O.S (Rescue Me)."
This was covered by the Palast Orchester and their singer, Max Raabe - German performers who play in the style of 1920s-1930s dance bands. It's on their 2002 album Super Hits Nummer 2, which also features renditions of "Lady Marmalade," "Uptown Girl" and "Let's Talk About Sex." >>
Suggestion credit:
Katie - Melbourne, Australia
This was used in the 1993 movie Coneheads in the scene where Dan Aykroyd's character is bringing his daughter and some friends to school. The friends mock the musical notes after the vocal phrase, "Sometimes I feel I have to... Get away" >>
Suggestion credit:
Chet - Saratoga Springs, NY

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Who sang tainted love in the 80s

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