New York, NY (Top40 Charts) July 2021 is the 40th anniversary of Soft Cell's Tainted Love and to celebrate a brand new, five-minute version by Soft Cell's Dave Ball using the original studio parts is set for release. Originally 2 min 36 seconds, it will be available to listen to tonight after an exclusive first play on BBC
Radio 2 with Holly Johnson. As well as the new extended version, the three-track release will feature 2021 remastered versions the original 7" coupled with its original b-side Where Did Our Love Go.
These tracks will all feature on a limited-edition pink 10" vinyl with a rare version of its original sleeve design, and comes with four postcards of classic
Soft Cell images.
Written by Ed Cobb, Tainted Love is a cover of the northern soul classic and was originally performed by
Gloria Jones in 1964, then by Ruth Swann in 1975. Soft Cell's definitive version (originally released on 17th July 1981) went on to be best-selling single of the year in the UK, was the 11th best-selling single of the 80s, and is now certified as platinum. It spent a then record breaking 43 weeks in the US chart, was number one in 17 countries and is regarded as one of the most important and influential electronic tracks of all time.
In the glorious 40-year history, Soft Cell's version of Tainted Love has been voted 5th in VH1's 100 Greatest Number 1s of the 1980s, and has been streamed over 849 million times to date (214M streams in 2020 alone!). It has been sampled on worldwide hits such as Rihanna's SOS (108M Spotify streams), and covered numerously by artists of many genres, including Marilyn Manson. Soft Cell's version has featured in feature films including La La Land, Pride, Mr and Mrs Smith, Bruno, 13 Going On 30, Sleepers and hit TV shows including Friends, The Office (UK), This Is England, Ashes to Ashes, Eastenders and Coronation Street.
Tainted Love is taken from Soft Cell's seminal 1981 debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret.
Soft Cell, Marc Almond and Dave Ball, reunited in 2018 and release brand new material later in 2021.
