Marc Almond and David Ball took our tears and that's not nearly all. After the miserable chart performance of their first single 'Memorabilia', Soft Cell was given one last chance by their label Phonogram to come up with a hit. They decided to do a cover of 'Tainted Love', which was written by Ed Cobb, who was the manager of the Standells and the Chocolate Watchband. Mike Thorne produced their version which was recorded in a day and a half with Marc Almond's first vocal take being used on the record. Almond calls the song "a mixture of cold electronics with an over-passionate, over-exuberant, slightly out of key vocal." He says "Dave introduced me to the record and I loved it so much and we wanted an interesting song for a encore number in our show. Dave loved Northern Soul and it was a novelty to have an electronic synthesizer band doing a Soul song. When we signed with our record company, they wanted to record it. They told us to put bass, guitar and drums on it as they said it was too odd. They put it out anyway and the next thing it was gathering radio play and then it was number one. I was fascinated that it was originally by Gloria Jones, the girlfriend of Marc Bolan and I'd always been a T-Rex fan."
'Tainted Love' went on to top the charts in seventeen additional countries; and eventually went to number eight in the US, setting a Guinness World Record at the time for the longest consecutive stay on the Billboard Hot 100 chart of forty three weeks. In Britain, it was the biggest single of 1981. In the US, Soft Cell is considered a one-hit wonder (although they've had two other top forty hits on the dance chart), while in the UK, they've had numerous other hits.
'Tainted Love' was also released as a medley with a cover of the Supremes' first number one single 'Where Did Our Love Go'. It was written by Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian Holland and Edward Holland, Jr. The two songs only appear together on 45 and 12 inch singles.
'Tainted Love' was also released as a medley with a cover of the Supremes' first number one single 'Where Did Our Love Go'. It was written by Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian Holland and Edward Holland, Jr. The two songs only appear together on 45 and 12 inch singles.
Sometimes I feel I've got to
Run away I've got to
Get away
From the pain that you drive into the heart of me
The love we share
Seems to go nowhere
And I've lost my light
For I toss and turn I can't sleep at night
Once I ran to you (I ran)
Now I'll run from you
This tainted love you've given
I give you all a boy could give you
Take my tears and that's not nearly all
Oh...tainted love
Tainted love
Now I know I've got to
Run away I've got to
Get away
You don't really want any more from me
To make things right
You need someone to hold you tight
And you think love is to pray
But I'm sorry I don't pray that way
Once I ran to you (I ran)
Now I'll run from you
This tainted love you've given
I give you all a boy could give you
Take my tears and that's not nearly all
Oh...tainted love
Tainted love
Don't touch me please
I cannot stand the way you tease
I love you though you hurt me so
Now I'm going to pack my things and go
Tainted love, tainted love
Tainted love, tainted love
Touch me baby, tainted love
Touch me baby, tainted love
Tainted love
Tainted love
Tainted love
Sometimes I feel I've got to
Run away I've got to
Get away
Baby, baby
Where did our love go?
Oh, don't you leave me
Don't you leave me no more
I've got this burning, yearning yearning feeling inside me
Oh, deep inside me
And it hurts so bad
You came into my life
So tenderly
With a burning love
That stings like a bee
And now that I've surrendered
So helplessly
You know I believe
You want to leave me
Oh, baby baby
Where did our love go
Oh, don't you leave me
Oh, baby baby
Where did our love go?
Oh don't you leave me
Don't you leave me no more
You came into my life
So tenderly
With a burning love
That stings like a bee
And now that I've surrendered
So helplessly
You know I believe
You want to leave me
Baby, baby
Where did our love go?
Oh, baby baby
Don't you leave me no more
I've got this burning, burning yearning feeling inside me
Deep inside me
And it hurts so bad
Baby, baby
Where did our love go?
Don't you leave me
Don't you leave me no more
And now that I've surrendered so helplessly
You know, I believe you want to leave me
Baby, baby
Where did our love go?
'Tainted Love' appears on their first album 'Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret'.
'Where Did Our Love Go' appears on their second 'Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing'.
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