It’s that time again for Throwback Thursday featuring a favorite song, something about the song and a cover version of the song.
Traveling along the dark shoals of the intraweb to bring you, dear bunkies, something interesting, somehow the 80s’ New Wave song Tainted Love came up, (don’t ask.) I’m guessing many of you don’t know that the song was originally recorded by soul singer Gloria Jones, in 1964, 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. Jones re-recorded the song in 1976, produced by her boyfriend Marc Bolan.
The song 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.
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.”
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. Marc Almond called this song “A mixture of cold electronics with an over-passionate, over-exuberant, slightly out of key vocal.” 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.
Demand Euphoria!
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