GabyThe Best Soundtrack for a Brawl
In the brilliant film adaptation of the works of British wit Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, “Jim from Piccadilly”, Sam Rockwell plays Jim — a lovestruck rake, a drunk from a wealthy family, and, as you might say today, a “spoiled rich kid” — and there’s a memorable nightclub fight scene. The soundtrack and the plot sync up perfectly: at the start of that sequence, Icelandic singer Emilíana Torrini appears on stage, and many listeners first heard her voice on the debut album by fellow Icelanders GusGus; wider audiences know her from the end-credits song in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Sam Rockwell in the film “Jim from Piccadilly”
Here she lights the stage in an evening dress, bare-shouldered and backed by a small orchestra, performing a swinging version of the song “Tainted Love” — a tune most people associate with 1980s synth-pop. When I first watched the film, I was happily surprised by how well the filmmakers reworked the song into a completely different genre — as if they’d used a time machine to move it from the cool, synth-driven ’80s back to a warmer, respectable ’60s. Later I learned that wasn’t exactly the case.
Emilíana Torrini performs “Tainted Love” in the film “Jim from Piccadilly”
Fame and the Fatal Gloria
The song actually first appeared in 1965 as the B-side to the single “My Bad Boy’s Comin’ Home”, recorded by American singer Gloria Jones, who was associated with the Northern Soul scene. It was written by Ed Cobb, who later became a well-known songwriter, but at the time the track went largely unnoticed. Gloria later admitted she didn’t much like the song — she found the word “tainted” a bit vulgar.
In 1973, British DJ Richard Searling, while record-hunting in the U.S., came across a copy of the single and brought it back to British clubs. The fast tempo, female backing vocals, brass and rhythm guitar — elements critics associated with the Motown sound — caught on with U.K. dancers, and the record revived on the dance floors.
Riding that wave, Gloria Jones, who by then was living in the U.K., recorded a new version in 1976 with help from her then-boyfriend, Marc Bolan of T. Rex; the couple later had a child. That new take, included on her album Vixen, still failed to become a hit.
Gloria Jones and Marc Bolan
On September 16, 1977, while Gloria Jones was driving with glam-rock star Marc Bolan beside her, she lost control and the car hit a tree; Bolan died at age 29. Reportedly he never drove himself because he feared a fate like James Dean’s.
“Marc from Piccadilly”
The song’s real fame came because of another Marc: Marc Almond — the sweet-voiced new romantic, an LGBT icon in Britain, and, with keyboardist David Ball, one half of the electronic duo Soft Cell. It started at a disco: British DJ Ian Dewhirst said that after hearing Gloria Jones’ version in a club, Almond literally chased him down and begged him to record it on tape (there was no Shazam back then).
Marc Almond
Dewhirst later recalled that he tended to avoid Almond because Almond had a reputation for getting into fights. That image echoes Wodehouse’s Jim, who didn’t need drink to start throwing punches in nightclubs.
Almond recorded the song, and in 1981 his version became the UK’s biggest hit. The icy synths, the sharp, march-like rhythm, and Almond’s romantic-yet-anxious vocals made the track irresistible; by 2012, Soft Cell’s single had sold over a million copies.
“Tainted Love” performed by the duo Soft Cell
Ten years after the hit — in 1991, after Soft Cell had split — Almond released a new video featuring dancing men against a starry sky. That video, directed by Peter Christopherson (nicknamed “Sleazy”), became the best-known version. Christopherson was a key figure in the London underground: an artist-designer, photographer, music-video director, and a member of the dark industrial duo Coil.
In the mid-1980s, British esoteric artists recorded a very dark, almost hopeless version of “Tainted Love” with a slowed-down rhythm and apocalyptic synths. The video shows an HIV-positive young man spending his last days alone in a hospital room; Marc Almond appears briefly as the likely partner of the main character.
Soft Cell performing “Tainted Love” on the popular TV show Top of the Pops
Maybe the song would have remained a relic if the U.S. hadn’t brought it back in the 2001 teen spoof Not Another Teen Movie. You might not recall it at first, but the film features a cover by American band Marilyn Manson. Their take isn’t as bleak as Coil’s — what gloom would you expect in a teen comedy? The cover borrows prominent samples from Soft Cell’s 1981 hit, and for many listeners that original still feels like the definitive version of “Tainted Love.”
Marilyn Manson’s “Not Another Teen Movie” version
