Tainted Love

"Tainted Love"
Song
B-side	"My Bad Boy Is Coming Home"

"Tainted Love"
Song
B-side	"Where Did Our Love Go?"

"Tainted Love" is a song composed by Ed Cobb, formerly of The Four Preps, which was originally recorded in 1964 by Gloria Jones. It attained worldwide fame after being covered by Soft Cell in 1981, and has since been covered by numerous other groups and artists.

Soft Cell version

Soft Cell elected to release it as their third single in July 7 1981. Produced by Mike Throne 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 on the UK singles chart, eventually repeating the feat in 17 territories.

The following year it charted in the US. Although it took a record-breaking 19 weeks to crack the Top 40, the song eventually reached #8 and spent a then-record breaking 43 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.

Marilyn Manson cover

"Tainted Love"
Song

Marilyn Manson covered "Tainted Love" and released it as a single from the Not Another Teen Movie soundtrack. It was released in 2001.

Released in the UK in May 2002, it is Manson's biggest hit to date in that country, reaching a position of #5 in the UK Top 75 charts.

Track listing

1. "Tainted Love"
2. "I Melt with You" (Mest)
3. "Suicide Is Painless"
4. "Bizarre Love Triangle" (Stabbing Westward)

Selected list of recorded versions

• 1964: Gloria Jones, northern soul
• 1975: Ruth Swann (aka Diana Foster), northern soul UK cover version on Spark label
• 1976: Gloria Jones with Marc Bolan, glam rock
• 1980: Blue Öyster Cult, hard rock
• 1981-82: Soft Cell, synthpop
• 1985: Coil, industrial
• 1986: Boppin' Kids on the album Go Wild!, Rockabilly
• 1990s: Tainted Cash, rave music
• 1991: Marc Almond (with Soft Cell)
• 1992: Flying Pickets, a cappella version
• 1992: Inspiral Carpets
• 1994: Spaceheads, on the album Spaceheads, rock
• 1995: Shades Apart, on the album Save It (punk rock)
• 1997: Deathline International, on the compilation Industrial War, industrial (often mistakenly attributed to Skinny Puppy)
• 1997: Atrocity on their cover album titled Werk 80 and on their "Tainted love" single (two different versions) and on their greatest hits double album None plus ultra (1999), gothic metal
• 1997: Hi-Fives, on their album ...And A Whole Lotta You!
• 1998: Country Teasers, on their album Back to the Future, or Brideshead Revisited Revisited
• 1998: The Living End, as a B-side to their single "All Torn Down" and on Triple J Hottest 100, 1998 (#17 on the Hottest 100 list.)
• 1999: My Ruin, on the album Speak and Destroy
• 1999: Me First And The Gimmie Gimmies, on the album "Are A Drag"
• 2000: La Unión, on the album Grandes Éxitos and called "Falso amor"
• 2001: Marilyn Manson, shock rock, on album Not Another Teen Movie Soundtrack and Lest We Forget: The Best of Marilyn Manson. Also as a bonus track on The Golden Age of Grotesque

• 2002: Prozac+, on the album Miodio
• 2003: The Hormonauts, on the album Mini-Skirt
• 2003: Static X, metal
• 2004: Thomas Schumacher, on the EP Tainted Schall
• 2005: The Pussycat Dolls, on album PCD
• 2006: Soft Cell version sampled on "SOS", a song by Rihanna
• 2006: Milk Inc. cover (dance music)
• 2006: John B. feat. Marcy Meow beta recordings (electro)
• 2006: Mahjong Connection Mahjong Music
• 2006: Les Sabotages-jam & spoon rmx Music Worx records
• 2007: Richard Grey recorded a dance cover entitled "Warped Bass". It has reached #52 on the UK Singles Chart.
• 2007: Killwhitneydead. recorded a metalcore cover entitled "Funny Enough It Sounds Just Like Tainted Love"
• 2007: Grandmagneto acoustic reggae version 7" vinyl on Favourite recordings
• 2007: The Vending Tree - A favourite in their live sets
• 2008: Danny Noriega performed the song on American Idol, which was recorded and sold on iTunes.
• 2008: Roland Ross and Josh Whitaker covered the song by layering up all previous versions on top of each other in synchronization. This was then pressed to a one-off vinyl, accompanied by a gold presentation frame listing all the artists that had recorded the song

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 station's track listing consists almost entirely of original versions of songs which were later covered by another musician/band and then popularly believed to be the original release of said musician/band, as with Soft Cell's version of "Tainted Love".
• The song has been used in the films Coneheads, 13 Going on 30, Beauty Shop, 200 Cigarettes, and Talk to Me.
• The 2005 Doctor Who episode "The End of the World" featured the Soft Cell cover on a jukebox in the far future; the owner of the jukebox refers to the song as "classical music."
• The sixth episode of the television show Ashes to Ashes features the Soft Cell cover in the opening minutes.
• 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 1990s at KNRK in-studio performance.
• In the 2004 episode of Friends 10th season entitled "The One Where the Stripper Cries," Danny DeVito's character performs a striptease to the song.
• The Pussycat Dolls perform a cover of this song on an episode of the NBC show Las Vegas.
• Emiliana Torrini sings a 1930's jazz arrangement of the song in the 2004 movie Piccadilly Jim.
• The song is included as a bonus soundtrack in the PSP game Activision Hits Remixed, along with other 80's pop music.
• Semi-finalist Danny Noriega sings the song on American Idol (season 7) on March 4, 2008.
• In Newgrounds.com, a parody was made titled "Taint of Love" under the "FDA" Series in the year 2000.
• In one episode of Full House Jesse, Danny, and Joey sang "Tainted Love" together

External links

• Producer Mike Thorne discusses Soft Cell's cover of "Tainted Love"
• Danny Noriega sings "Tainted Love" on Amerian Idol (season 7)