Rex, with whom she began a romantic relationship in the early 1970s. Her work as a backing singer and songwriter led her to English glam superstar Marc Bolan of T. Bach.īut the music industry wasn’t quite done with Jones. Jones recorded an album and a few more singles before pursuing an advanced degree in piano, with a focus on the works of J.S. Gloria Jones, meanwhile, had no such luck with her original recording of “Tainted Love.” It’s a shame, too that first version is a classic soul stomper, ripping through a thumbnail sketch of sadomasochistic love in 2 minutes 19 seconds. In addition to “Tainted Love,” he wrote Brenda Holloway’s 1964 hit “Every Little Bit Hurts.” That song would go on to be one of the most-covered of the genre, subsequent versions being recorded by the Small Faces, Jimi Hendrix, George Clinton, the Spencer Davis Group, the Clash, the Jam, and Alicia Keys. Rather than capitalizing on the family-friendly harmonies the Preps had helped pioneer, he sought out darker, harder-edged bands like the Standells-who took his song “Dirty Water” to number 11 on the Billboard singles chart-and the Chocolate Watchband, whose blend of garage and psychedelic styles inspired countless fuzzed-out imitators.Ĭobb also dabbled in R & B and soul. Originally a member of squeaky-clean vocal group The Four Preps, he was already gravitating towards production by the time he quit the group in 1966.Ĭobb might merely have joined the ranks of countless other songwriters and producers plying the lucrative byways of ‘60s pop, but here his career took a distinct left turn. “Tainted Love” was written by Ed Cobb, a shadowy figure in American rock and pop in the ‘50s and ‘60s. And while neither of her versions would make any impact on the charts, the story of this agonized song would enfold a long, strange string of figures from the bowels of rock history. What most of the perplexed American radio audience didn’t then know was that the song was a cover, having first been recorded in 1964 by a then-little-known American artist, Gloria Jones, who would go on to re-record it in 1976, in effect covering herself. The spare, electronic production resembles nothing else then on the airwaves, and after a brief spell in the lower rungs of the US Billboard Hot 100, it climbs to number 8, in total spending a record-breaking 43 weeks on the chart. Into this guitar-heavy slurry comes an arresting-and catchy!-song about abuse and paranoia: “Tainted Love.” The artist is Soft Cell, an English duo consisting of singer Marc Almond and multi-instrumentalist David Ball. The airwaves are dominated by slick, highly produced pop-rock: Olivia Newton-John’s “Let’s Get Physical” Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”’ Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ’n Roll.”
Imagine, if you will, a world without synthpop.
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