Tainted Love

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Tainted Love" is a song composed by Ed Cobb, formerly of The Four Preps. It was originally recorded in 1964 by Gloria Jones and became a popular song on the Northern Soul scene. It attained worldwide fame after it was covered in 1981 (1982 in the US) by Soft Cell. It has since been covered by numerous other groups.

1 Soft Cell version
2 Selected list of recorded versions
3 In the media
4 External links

[edit] Soft Cell version

A long time fan of this northern soul classic, Soft Cell elected to release a cover of it as their third single in July 1981. Produced by Mike Thorne the track was recorded in a day and a half with the run through vocal being used on the released version. Buoyed by the then dominant synthpop sound of the time and a memorable performance on Top of the Pops it rapidly reached number one in the UK singles chart, eventually repeating the feat in 17 territories. The following year it charted in the US eventually reaching number 8 in a record breaking 43 week chart run.

Near the end of this version, the group segues into Diana Ross and The Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go?"

[edit] Selected list of recorded versions

1964 Gloria Jones, northern soul
1976 Gloria Jones with Marc Bolan, glam rock
1981-82 Soft Cell, synthpop
1985 Coil, gothic/industrial
1986 Boppin' Kids on the album Go Wild!, Rockabilly
1990s Tainted Cash, rave music
1993 Inspiral Carpets
1990s Jon K, freestyle music
1990s Señor X
1991 Marc Almond (with Soft Cell)
1992 Flying Pickets, a cappella version
1995 Shades Apart, punk Rock on their Save It album
1999 The Living End, rockabilly-punk rock
1996 Bluekilla, skapunk
1998 Atrocity on album Werk 80, industrial metal
1999 Club 69, electro-house remixes
1999 My Ruin, alternative metal
2000 Mark 'Ruff' Ryder - Joy (Strictly Underground Records, Garage)
2000 Wild Strawberries on album Twist
2000 Head Like A Hole on the album Honky Tonk Jukebox
2001 Marilyn Manson, industrial metal, on album Not Another Teen Movie O.S.T. and Lest We Forget: The Best Of Marilyn Manson. Also as a bonus track on The Golden Age of Grotesque
2001 La Unión, on album Rock en español
2003 Anandi, on album Forever Days
2004 The Hormonauts covered the song for their Stayin' Alive single.
2005 Lee Harding sang it on Australian Idol for 80's week
2005 The Pussycat Dolls, Pop
2006 Rihanna samples Soft Cell's cover of "Tainted Love" on the single "S.O.S. (Rescue Me)" from her 2006 album A Girl Like Me
2006 Milk Inc., Dance
2006 John B, electrostep version
2006 Lil Scrappy samples a very little bit of the song on his song "Money In The Bank" that featured Young Buck
2006 Paul Young, on album Rock Swings - On the wild side of swing
29Died
Bad Religion
Casey McSocial
Hootie and the Blowfish
Pennywise, punk rock
Social Distortion
Skinny Puppy

[edit] In the media

Gloria Jones' original version is played on the in-car radio station Master Sounds 98.3 in the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
The song has been used in film: Coneheads and 13 Going on 30.
The 2005 Doctor Who episode "The End of the World" featured the song on a jukebox in the far future. At that time, it was supposed to be classical music.
The TV soap opera Port Charles named one of its story arcs "Tainted Love" after the song.
Spike Jonze featured the song in a popular 1997 television commercial for Levi's jeans, matching the synthesized beat to an EKG machine.
It has been covered live by The Clash, and Shelly Poole, but neither version has been released.
The character Boyce in the British TV sitcom Green Wing sang the Soft Cell version at the beginning of the eighth episode of the first series to raise money for charity.
Dishwalla played live on radio in the late 1990's at KNRK in-studio performance.
In the 2004 episode of Friends entitled "The One Where the Stripper Cries," Danny DeVito's character performs a striptease to the song.
Rihanna samples the song in her song "SOS"
The Pussycat Dolls have done their cover of the song on their hit Cd PCD