"My Bad Boy's Comin' Home" / "Tainted Love" (1965)
"Come Go with Me" (1966)
"Tainted Love" is a song composed byEd Cobb, formerly of American groupthe Four Preps, which was originally recorded byGloria Jones in 1964.[3] In 1981, the song attained worldwide fame after being covered and reworked by Britishsynth-pop duoSoft Cell for their albumNon-Stop Erotic Cabaret. The song has since been covered by numerous groups and artists.
American artistGloria Jones made the first recording of "Tainted Love" in 1964.Glen Campbell played lead guitar.[4] The song was written and produced byEd Cobb and arranged byLincoln Mayorga. It was the B-side of her 1965 single "My Bad Boy's Comin' Home",[5] which was a commercial flop, failing to chart on either the US or the UK. According to Nick Talevski, before Jones recorded the song, Cobb had offered it tothe Standells, whom he managed and produced, but they rejected it.[6] The Standells say that the song was never offered to them, and that they were not signed to Cobb's companyGreengrass Productions until 1966, some two years after Jones's recording.[7]
In 1973, British club DJ Richard Searling purchased a copy of the almost decade-old single while on a trip to the United States. The track'sMotown-influenced sound (featuring a fast tempo, horns, electric rhythm guitar and female backing vocals) fit in perfectly with the music favoured by those involved in the UK'sNorthern soul club scene of the early 1970s, and Searling popularised the song at the Northern soul club Va Va's inBolton, and later, atWigan Casino.[8]
Owing to the new-found underground popularity of the song, Jones re-recorded "Tainted Love" in 1976 and released it as a single, but it also failed to chart. This version was released on her albumVixen and was produced by her boyfriendMarc Bolan.[9]
In 2014,NME ranked it number 305 in their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[10]
Englishsynth-pop duoSoft Cell became aware of "Tainted Love" through its status as a UK "Northern soul" hit.[18] In 2010, DJ Ian "Frank" Dewhirst claimed he was the first person to play the song forMarc Almond, the vocalist for Soft Cell. Some time after, Soft Cell began performing the song in their live setlist, choosing it instead ofFrankie Valli and the Four Seasons' "The Night" (a song they would go on to record in 2003).[19][20] Eventually, aPhonogram Records A&R manager Roger Ames opted the band to record the single at a London-basedAdvision Studios, with producerMike Thorne. There, Soft Cell's version was recorded in a day and a half with Almond's first vocal take being used on the record.[21][22]
Thorne commented that he was surprised by the choice as he had not been impressed by Jones's 1976 version on hearing it, but was impressed by the new arrangement and Almond's sinister vocal: "You could smell the coke on that second, Northern Soul version, it was really so over-ramped and so frantic. It was good for the dance floor, but I didn't like the record...when Soft Cell performed the song I heard a very novel sound and a very nice voice, so off we went."[23] Notably, Almond has stated in interviews that Soft Cell's version was inspired more by the 1975 version by English singerRuth Swann (later known as Jill Saward) than that of Gloria Jones.[24]
Phonogram Records chose to release "Tainted Love" in 1981 as Soft Cell's second single (their first was "Memorabilia", which did not chart).[23] The label's representatives implied that this single would be Soft Cell's final release on Some Bizzare if it did not sell.[23] The 12-inch single version (extended dance version) is a medley, transitioning to a cover ofthe Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go" halfway through the song. Marc Almond said that this decision was not the duo's, recounting, "If only we'd put our own song on it then we would be considerably richer", whileDavid Ball described the medley as "the most costly idea of our career".[25]
Following a performance on theBBC'sTop of the Pops chart show, "Tainted Love" reached number one on theUK Singles Chart, and was known as the best-selling single of 1981 in the UK, until the Official Charts Company recalculated the data in 2021[26] (giving the title to "Don't You Want Me" byThe Human League).[27] "Tainted Love" had 1.05 million sales in the UK in 1981, with that total increasing to 1.35 million copies as of August 2017.[27] In 2023, it was listed as the 59th best-selling single of all time in the UK.[28]
Buoyed by the then-dominantnew wave sound of the time and released on their albumNon-Stop Erotic Cabaret, "Tainted Love" became a major hit in the US during theSecond British Invasion, with the song spending a then-record breaking[29] 43 weeks on the USBillboard Hot 100.[30] On the US chart dated January 16, 1982, the song entered theBillboardHot 100 at number 90. It appeared to peak at number 64 and fell to number 100 on February 27. After spending a second week at number 100, it started climbing again. It took 19 weeks to crack theAmerican Top 40 and reached number 8 during the summer of 1982.[30]
"Soft Cell, a tweezy synthesizer and singer duo whose fondest subject was sexual perversion, had a huge turntable hit in the clubs with "Tainted Love", which then crossed over to radio, enjoying the longest tenure, at forty-three weeks, of any single in Billboard history."
A re-recorded version, titled "Tainted Love '91", was issued in 1991, seven years after Soft Cell's dissolution in 1984, as a tie-in to the compilation albumMemorabilia – The Singles (which reached number eight in theUK Albums Chart in June 1991).[40] "Tainted Love '91" was a follow-up to "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye '91", which was another re-recorded/remixed version of an earlier single from the Soft Cell/Marc Almond compilation. "Tainted Love '91" became another top-40 hit from the collection and peaked at number five in the UK charts, making it Soft Cell's sixth top-10 hit (as records with re-recorded vocals were seen as a new hit by the chart compilers of the time)[41]
The video for this version, directed byPeter Christopherson, features a man pacing at night and dancing with starry apparitions, while Almond sings amongst the stars.[42] Christopherson's bandCoil had covered "Tainted Love" in 1985, with a music video that included a cameo appearance by Almond.[43]
Americanrock bandMarilyn Manson covered "Tainted Love" with an arrangement based on Soft Cell's version. It was released in November 2001 as a single from theNot Another Teen Movie soundtrack.[88] The accompanying music video featured cast membersChyler Leigh,Mia Kirshner,Chris Evans andJaime Pressly.[89][90] It was later included as a bonus track on international editions of the band's following album,The Golden Age of Grotesque in 2003.[91] Manson said that he was not "really thinking about '80s nostalgia" during the recording, while recognizing it as a main concept behind the soundtrack.[92]
"Tainted Love" topped the charts in Portugal and peaked within the top ten of the charts in the United Kingdom.[93] It also peaked within the top ten of the charts throughout the rest of Europe, including Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy and Norway.[94] It was nominated for theKerrang! Award for Best Single in 2002,[95] and won theKerrang! Award for Best Video.[96] It was also nominated for Best Video at the 2002Q Awards.[97]
^William Ruhlmann."Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret - Soft Cell".AllMusic.All Media Network. RetrievedJune 24, 2013....the remake of Gloria Jones' "Tainted Love," which dominated dance clubs and eventually peaked in the pop Top Ten with its synth-pop sound and Almond's plaintive vocal in 1981-1982.
^Tim Sendra."Pop & Wave, Vol. 1 - Various Artists".AllMusic. All Media Network. RetrievedJune 24, 2013.the collection has some of the biggest hits of the new wave era. Songs like "Cars" by Gary Numan, "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell (...) are the type of tunes that define the era.
^Gallucci, Michael (November 7, 2024)."Top 50 New Wave Songs".Ultimate Classic Rock. RetrievedNovember 8, 2024.
^Davis 2012, September 1981. Soft Cell: Tainted Love.
^The Virgin Book of British Hit Singles, Volume 2 by Dave McAleer, Andy Gregory and Matthew White (Virgin Books/Ebury Publishing/Random House/Official Charts CompanyISBN9780753522455)
^Kent, David (1993).Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives: Australian Chart Book. p. 105.ISBN0-646-11917-6. N.B. The Kent Report chart was licensed byARIA between 1983 and June 19, 1988.
^"InfoDisc : Tous les Titres par Artiste".Dominic DURAND / InfoDisc (in French). InfoDisc.fr. June 24, 2013. Archived fromthe original on October 26, 2013. RetrievedJune 24, 2013. You have to use the index at the top of the page and search "Soft Cell"
^abcDanyel Smith, ed. (May 18, 2002)."Hits of The World".Billboard. Vol. 114, no. 20. Nielsen Business Media, Inc.ISSN0006-2510. RetrievedApril 21, 2017. cf. last week position for Portugal peak position
Bielefeldt, Christian & Pendzich, Mark (2011). "Spot checks of pop history: The cover recordings of 'Stand By Me' and 'Tainted Love'".Lied und Populäre Kultur / Song and Popular Culture.56:97–111.JSTOR23339032.
Davis, Sharon (2012). "September 1981. Soft Cell: Tainted Love".80s Chart-Toppers: Every Chart-Topper Tells a Story. Random House.ISBN978-1-7805-7411-0.
