Tainted Love

Original by Gloria Jones, Cover by Soft Cell

How did the B-side of a song recorded in 1964 become one of the best known synth pop songs of the 80’s? Let’s take a look at how it happened with the song Tainted Love.

Tainted Love, composed by Ed Cobb (of the band the Four Preps), was originally recorded by the American soul singer Gloria Jones and released in 1965 as the B-side of her single “My Bad Boy’s Comin’ Home”. The record failed to chart and the song didn’t become popular until British DJ Richard Searling introduced it to the UK’s Northern Soul club scene in the early 1970s.

After gaining some popularity as an underground hit, Gloria Jones re-recorded Tainted Love and released it as a single in 1976 as well as including it on her 3rd studio album Vixen. The song again failed to become a mainstream hit until the English synth-pop duo Soft Cell discovered it and began playing it during their live sets.

Soft Cell recorded the song and released it as a single in 1981. It would go on to become the best selling single in the UK that year, selling over 1 million records. The following year, Tainted Love entered the US charts and eventually spent 43 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. The song peaked at number 8 on the American Top 40 during the summer of 1982

Other artists have done covers of Tainted Love, including Marilyn Manson with his popular cover released in 2001. But it was Soft Cell who took the song from an unpopular B-side to one which would not only define the band’s legacy but also help shape the sound of popular music in the 1980s.