How does a British duo take a fun but pedestrian 60s song and turn it into an iconic synth-pop classic? Well, I don’t know, you’d have to ask Soft Cell how they did it. But the fact of the matter is that it was done!
In it’s original form, “Tainted Love” is a pleasant upbeat soul number which bears an uncanny resemblance to Fine Young Cannibals’ “Good Thing”, which arrived a quarter-century later. In it’s more popular, remade version, it’s synthed out and camped out, and Soft Cell were smart enough to add a chunk of The Supremes’ 1964 hit “Where Did Our Love Go” as the coda. Genius stuff.
“Tainted Love” has held up remarkably well for a song that barely scraped the inside of the Top 10 upon its’ release in 1982. Rihanna adapted it perfectly into her hit “S.O.S.” you can’t shake a stick at an 80s station without hearing it once an hour or so, and it’s also lived on as a karaoke staple.
I’d actually never seen the video for “Tainted Love” until I prepared this post. Wow, this video is gayer than a sack of pink triangles!
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