Soft Cell

English synth-pop duo · formed 1977

Soft Cell — Marc Almond and Dave Ball — released their cover of ‘Tainted Love’ in 1981, and it became so definitive that it eclipsed the original completely. Their version is genuinely theirs and genuinely great; the only error is chronological, the assumption that a 1981 No. 1 must be where the song began. It began in 1964, on a B-side that sank.

Who recorded it

Songs credited to Soft Cell that are covers

Tainted Love

Cover — originally recorded by Gloria Jones

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