Photo: “Tainted Love” is a song composed by Ed Cobb, formerly of American group the Four Preps, which was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1964. It attained worldwide fame after being covered and reworked by British synthpop duo Soft Cell in 1981 and has since been covered by numerous groups and artists. Soft Cell became aware of the song through its status as a UK “Northern soul” hit. In 1973, British club DJ Richard Searling purchased a copy of the almost decade-old single while on a trip to the United States. The track’s Motown-influenced sound fit in perfectly with the music favoured by those involved in the UK’s Northern soul club scene of the early 1970s, and Searling popularised the song at the Northern soul club Va Va’s in Bolton, and later, at Wigan Casino.
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