That "bink-bink" synth stab is instant. Two notes and you are back on a dark dance floor, watching someone walk away. It sounds like it was born in 1981, engineered in a studio full of blinking machines. But the song is older than that, and its first life was a total failure. This is a record that had to die once, cross an ocean, and wait 17 years to become the thing you remember.
"Tainted Love" was written by Ed Cobb and originally recorded by American soul singer Gloria Jones in 1964. It flopped as a B-side and failed to chart. British synth-pop duo Soft Cell reworked it in 1981, and their version became a global hit, reaching number one in the UK and number eight in the US, where it set a then-record 43 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.
A failure in 1964, a cult hit in 1973
Ed Cobb, once of the vocal group the Four Preps, wrote the song, and Gloria Jones cut it in 1964. It went out as the B-side of a 1965 single and sank without a trace, no US chart, no UK chart, nothing. By any normal measure it was a dead record.
Then Britain saved it. In 1973 a British DJ bought a copy of the old single on a trip to America, and it landed perfectly in the UK's Northern Soul scene, the club movement built on obscure, up-tempo American soul 45s. For years, "Tainted Love" was a secret handshake on those dance floors, a lost record kept alive by collectors while the rest of the world had never heard it.
Two men and a synthesizer rebuild it
Soft Cell, singer Marc Almond and keyboardist Dave Ball, knew the song from that world. In 1981 they stripped it down to a stark electronic pulse and Almond's dramatic, aching vocal and put it on their album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. After a performance on the BBC's Top of the Pops, it went to number one in the UK and became one of the biggest sellers of the year.
There is one more detail that matters for anyone who loves a deep cut. The 12-inch version does not just end. It slides straight into a cover of the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go," turning a three-minute single into a longer, seamless medley. The extended version is a different, richer experience, and it is exactly the kind of thing a real 80s music library lives on.
The record that would not leave the chart
In America the song was a slow burn. It entered the Hot 100 in January 1982 down at number 90 and took 19 weeks just to crack the Top 40, finally peaking at number eight in the summer of 1982. That slow climb had a strange payoff: it stuck around for 43 weeks, a record for time spent on the Hot 100 at that point. It refused to leave, the same way its melody refuses to leave your head.
The honest bottom line
For American audiences, Soft Cell are a one-hit wonder, and the hit was not even their own song. It is a cover of a forgotten B-side by a writer most people cannot name, sung by a duo who never charted this high again in the States. That should make it feel small. It does the opposite. The arrangement is so complete, so instantly identifiable, that it erased the original from public memory and became the definitive version of a song written before either singer was famous. A good enough cover does not borrow a song. It takes it for good. The road from Gloria Jones's B-side to that synth stab is stranger than it sounds, involving a Northern Soul DJ, a nervous label, and a vocal take that was really a sound check.
FAQ
Who sang "Tainted Love" first? American soul singer Gloria Jones recorded the original in 1964, written by Ed Cobb. It was a B-side that flopped and never charted before Soft Cell's 1981 cover.
What is the original version of "Tainted Love"? Gloria Jones's 1964 soul recording is the original. It later became a cult favorite in Britain's Northern Soul club scene in the 1970s before Soft Cell reworked it.
How high did Soft Cell's version chart? It reached number one in the UK and number eight on the US Billboard Hot 100, where it set a then-record 43 weeks on the chart.
Why is "Tainted Love" so associated with the 80s? Because Soft Cell's stark synth-pop arrangement in 1981 defined the sound of early-80s electronic pop, and it became a defining track of the Second British Invasion despite the song being from 1964.
Does "Tainted Love" turn into another song? Yes. The 12-inch single is a medley that transitions into a cover of the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go," extending the track into a longer club version.
Are Soft Cell a one-hit wonder? In the US, essentially yes, since "Tainted Love" was their only major American hit. In the UK they had several charting singles, so the label is an American chart story.
Part of our guide to 80s One-Hit Wonders. See also The 12-Inch Single.
Sometimes we feel like we have to check it all away.