Tainted Love Shines Bright At #1

During 1981, British duo Soft Cell emerged from the pack to announce themselves as one of the pre-eminent synth-pop acts on the U.K. scene, with a million selling single, which would assume anthemic status for the genre. Much in the vein of artists such as Visage, Landscape, A Flock Of Seagulls, Blancmange, Thomas Dolby, Berlin, Missing Persons, Yazoo (see previous posts), Ultravox, Human League, Devo, Tubeway Army, Depeche Mode, early Spandau Ballet, Classic Nouveaux et al, Soft Cell were one of a plethora of synth-driven ‘futuristic’ style acts, that jointly comprised the ‘futurist’ faction of the broader ‘new wave’ movement, during the late 70s/early 80s. Though on the surface Soft Cell’s sound took inspiration from the likes of late 70s era Sparks and David Bowie, and electronica pioneers like German group Kraftwerk, New York duo Suicide, and Brian Eno, its members Dave Ball and Marc Almond, both shared an unabashed love for the U.K. soul scene of the 60s, and contemporary disco/dance. Their high-tech, atmospheric adaptation of a little known ‘northern soul’ track from the 60s, announced Soft Cell’s arrival as serious players, and became one of the few offerings from the British ‘futurist’ movement to achieve significant success Stateside.

Soft Cell were the combined talents of vocalist Marc Almond, and synthesizer guru Dave Ball. The duo met whilst attending the Leeds Polytechnic art school in the late 70s, initially finding common ground in their mutual admiration of the U.K. soul scene. Their earliest collaborations took the form of composing and performing theatrical music for local school productions, with Almond writing the lyrics to accompany Ball’s music. In 1978 the creative union evolved into Soft Cell, and they began performing on local club circuits, their shows making as much of an impact through striking visual accompaniment (slide shows) and special effects lighting (a reflection of the duos background in theatrical productions and the visual arts), as for their trademark hypnotically dark electronic sound. Friend, and visual technician, Steven Griffiths played a key role in Soft Cell’s stage production. Marc Almond would often be the focal point of the shows visuals, performing provocative, and at times bizarre acts, commonly with a sexually explicit theme. Early on, the duos image, and performance dynamic, adhered to like formula employed by Sparks (see recent post), in respect of combining the flamboyant, manic antics of a charismatic front man and vocalist (Marc Almond), with the studious and introverted (read apparently detached, possibly moody, mostly mysterious) musical backing of a genius instrumentalist (Dave Ball even sported a Ronald Mael style moustache for a time) - a template later used by Pet Shop Boys to great effect. Later in ’78, Soft Cell recorded their debut EP, ‘Mutant Moments’, funded by a £2000 loan from Dave Ball’s mother. The EP was recorded using a simple two track recorder, and featured four tracks in all. A limited run of two thousand copies were pressed, and released via the group’s own Big Frock Records label (the EP is now a prized possession among collectors).

The EP release, combined with the impact of their provocative and popular performances, attracted the attention of several cutting edge record labels, including Mute Records and Some Bizzare Records, both of which specialised in backing up and coming synth-pop based acts, such as Depeche Mode and Blancmange. It was the Lincoln based operation Some Bizzare Records, run by Stevo Pearce, that signed Soft Cell to a recording deal. Soft Cell’s signing with Some Bizarre, coincided with the labels major launch in early 1981, via the compilation album ‘Some Bizzare Album’, which featured tracks from Depeche Mode, Blancmange, The The, and B-Movie, among others. Soft Cell’s contribution was the track ‘The Girl With The Patent Leather Face’.

Soft Cell’s first official label release surfaced in March of ‘81, with the release of the single ‘Memorabilia’ (backed by the track ‘A Man Can Get Lost’). Both tracks were produced by Mute Records founder Daniel Miller (see coming post on The Normal), but the single failed to make any impact on the charts, though became a popular track in dance clubs (and eventually infiltrated the top 40 on the U.S. Club charts). Soft Cell shifted base to London, and were soon attracting a bit of media attention, as part of the burgeoning ‘futurist’ synth-pop movement. During this period, Stevo Pearce also worked a deal for Soft Cell’s music to be distributed via Phonogram, under the Some Bizzare label name. It was just as well, because the distributing muscle of a major label would be needed to keep up with demand for Soft Cell’s next single release.

During their many trips to local Leeds discotheques in the late 70s, Almond and Ball had become familiar with a bit of an underground cult classic. The song had originally been written in the 60s by Ed Cobb (of the Four Preps), and was first recorded as a ‘northern soul’ number by Gloria Jones, in 1964. Jones’ original version of ‘Tainted Love’, released on the Champion label, didn’t manage to crack the charts, but an updated version had become a popular track on the British club scene.

Soft Cell offered their dramatically reworked take on ‘Tainted Love’ in July of ‘81. Almond’s impassioned vocals were backed by Ball’s crisp and hypnotic electronic dirge, and viola! Electro-soul was born. Produced by Mike Thorne, ‘Tainted Love’ gripped you from the opening ‘bink bink’ of Ball’s synthesizer, and held you in its sway with Ball’s relentlessly pulsating electronic beat, and Almond’s plaintive vocal style.

The song made steady progress up the British charts during its first few weeks of release, but following a histrionic performance on the BBC’s ‘Top Of The Pops’, ‘Tainted Love’ exploded into the top 10, and by early September the darkly compelling track was shining bright at #1 in the U.K. Though it only spent two weeks at the summit of the British charts, it went on to become the biggest selling single of the year there (re-entering the British charts twice more during 1982). By November ‘81, the ‘Tainted Love’ wave had hit Australian shores, and it held sway over the competition for three weeks during February of ‘82. The song had initially been a bit of a sleeper in the States, but its popularity in dance clubs spilled over into the mainstream charts. ‘Tainted Love’ debuted on the U.S. charts during January of ‘82, peaked at #8 (after more than twenty weeks in the charts), and all up spent a, then record, total of 43 weeks inside the Hot 100. Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’ went on to become one of the biggest selling singles of the era, topping the charts in no fewer than seventeen countries, and was one of the defining songs of the synth-pop movement. Marc Almond would later comment in his book ‘Tainted Love’, that during the recording of the song, the duo only had modest expectations of the song cracking the top fifty. Regrettably, for Almond and Ball, they only received a portion of the performance royalties for the single ‘Tainted Love’, with the song writing royalties directed to Ed Cobb (or his publishing company), whilst the single’s B-side, ‘Where Did Our Love Go’, was a cover of the old Supremes’ hit (written by the song writing team of Holland, Dozier & Holland). The track has been covered and sampled on countless occasions over the ensuing 25 plus years. Most recently, singer Rihanna used extensive samples from Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’, for her global chart topper ‘SOS’.

Whilst the phenomenal success of ‘Tainted Love’ defined Soft Cell as ‘one hit wonders’ in certain parts of the world, most notably the U.S., the duo were anything but in their native Britain. The follow up single, ‘Bedsitter’, was released in November of ‘81, and made an immediate impression on the British charts. As the track was approaching its peak position of #4, Soft Cell released their debut album ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ (UK#5/US#22/OZ#34), recorded in New York. The title was anything but a misnomer for the luridly laced musical intent that lurked between the covers. Singer and lyricist Marc Almond drew from the darker, kinkier side of his imagination, to serve up a cheekily camp, and incendiary thematic brew of aberrant sexuality, squalor and seediness, rearing forth from the mundaneness of everyday urban life. The album was a virtual red light district on vinyl, and delivered on the promise of its title. The track ‘Seedy Films’ spoke of long nights in porno cinemas, whilst ‘Secret Life’ explored the darker urges lurking beneath the false banality of suburbanites. Ball’s hypnotic dance beats, combined with a dark, often cold electronic soundscape, offered the perfect musical score to accompany Almond’s tales of depravity. The follow up single, the oddly sentimental ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’, greeted the British charts in February of ‘82, and spent a week at #3 before saying its farewells. Puritans aside, the public at large embraced Soft Cell’s, arguable pretentious, but undeniably engaging debut album. Reflective of the growing influence of music videos, an accompanying ‘video album’ was release, titled ‘Non-Stop Exotic Video Show’. The original video for the track ‘Sex Dwarf’ caused quite a stir, but was reportedly confiscated by police, and heavily censored. Director Tim Pope, later associated with music videos for the Cure, oversaw production on the videos.