In 1964, Gloria Jones released a song that failed to chart. In 1981, a cover spent a record-breaking 43 weeks in the top 100
Gloria Jones recorded ‘Tainted Love’ in 1964, but it was released as the B-side to another single in 1965 and failed to chart in the UK or US. The song later found an audience through northern soul clubs, then became a major pop hit when Soft Cell covered it in 1981.
DJ Richard Searling began playing Jones’s version in northern England in 1973, and it was re-recorded in 1976, but still did not chart. Soft Cell’s synthpop version reached number one in the UK and US, became the UK’s best-selling single of 1981 and spent a record 43 weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100. Jones praised Marc Almond’s emotional performance, saying she preferred the cover to her own recording.
In short
- Gloria Jones’s original failed to chart.
- Northern soul clubs revived the song.
- Soft Cell’s cover spent 43 weeks on the US chart.
Explained simply
Northern soul was a dance music scene that grew in clubs in northern England, where DJs played rare American soul records. Gloria Jones’s 1964 recording of “Tainted Love” became popular with those club audiences after DJ Richard Searling began playing it in 1973.
The song was later taken up by Soft Cell, the British duo of singer Marc Almond and musician David Ball, who were part of the early 1980s synthpop scene. Their electronic arrangement brought an older soul song to a much wider pop audience, showing how club favourites could be reinterpreted for the charts.
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