GabyThe Best Soundtrack for a Brawl
In the brilliant film adaptation of the works of British witty wit Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, “Jim from Piccadilly”, where the very same Jim — a lovestruck rake, a drunkard from a wealthy family and, as one would say today, a “spoiled rich kid” — is masterfully played by Oscar-winner Sam Rockwell, there is a memorable fight scene in a nightclub. This is a unique case when the plot perfectly rhymes with the soundtrack: at the beginning of the scene, the elegant Icelandic singer Emilíana Torrini appears on stage of a music hall, whose voice we enjoyed on the first album of her compatriots — the band Gus Gus, while a wider audience knows her from the final song in the second part of the Lord of the Rings saga.
Sam Rockwell in the film “Jim from Piccadilly”
Here, by all genre rules, she ignites the stage in an evening dress, accompanied by a mini orchestra, seductively juggling her bare shoulders and performing a well-swinging version of the song “Tainted Love”, previously known as a synth-pop hit of the 1980s. When I watched the film for the first time, I was pleasantly and seriously surprised: how aptly the creators adapted this song into a completely opposite genre — as if using a time machine to transfer it from the cold romantic ’80s to the warm, respectable ’60s. Later, it turned out that it wasn’t exactly so.
Emilíana Torrini performs “Tainted Love” in the film “Jim from Piccadilly”
Fame and the Fatal Gloria
Actually, the song first appeared in 1965, released as the B-side to the single “My Bad Boy’s Comin’ Home” by American singer Gloria Jones, whose work was associated with the “Northern Soul” genre. The song was written by Edward Cobb, later a popular songwriter, but at the time, it went unnoticed by the wider public, lost among many similar songs in the genre. As Gloria later admitted, she didn’t really like the song, partly because of the word “Tainted,” which she found vulgar.
In 1973, British DJ Richard Searling, while traveling across the United States on a vinyl hunting trip, came across a copy of this single and, returning home, played “Tainted Love” in British clubs. The fast tempo, female backing vocals, brass section, and rhythm guitar — all elements critics called the “Motown sound” (named after the American company Motown) — appealed to British audiences, and the song revived on the dance floors.
Riding this wave, Gloria Jones, who by then lived in the UK, decided to record a new version in 1976, helped by her then-boyfriend — none other than Marc Bolan, leader of T. Rex, with whom she had a child. The new version, included in her album Vixen, did not achieve the huge popularity expected.
Gloria Jones and Marc Bolan
Just a year later, on September 16, 1977, Gloria Jones was driving a car with glam rock star Marc Bolan beside her. She lost control, and the car crashed into a tree; the musician died at age 29. An interesting detail — he never drove himself, reportedly fearing he might suffer the same fate as American singer James Dean, who died in a car accident at 24.
“Marc from Piccadilly”
The song’s real fame came thanks to another Marc. Marc Almond — the sweet-voiced new romantic, a British LGBT community idol, and, along with keyboardist David Ball, a member of the electronic duo Soft Cell. It all started at a disco: British DJ Ian Dewhirst once said that after hearing Gloria Jones’ version in a club, Almond literally chased him down and insisted he record it on tape for him (you understand, there was no “Shazam” back then, and the DJ couldn’t just say, “Go download it”).
Marc Almond
Interestingly, Dewhirst recalled that he avoided Almond’s company because Almond liked to get into fights. This fact again echoes Wodehouse’s literary character, who didn’t need whiskey to start throwing punches in nightclubs.
“Marc from Piccadilly” got the recorded song, and in 1981 he made it the UK’s biggest hit. The icy synthesizer sound, the sharp, march-like rhythm, Almond’s romantic yet anxious vocals — that’s what made the hit, which by 2012 sold over a million copies.
“Tainted Love” performed by the duo Soft Cell
Ten years after “Tainted Love” became a hit in the UK, in 1991, after Soft Cell’s breakup, Almond released another version of the video featuring dancing men against a starry sky background, which became the most famous and widely circulated version among viewers. The new version’s author was Peter Christopherson, nicknamed “Sleazy” — an undeniably iconic figure in the London underground scene: an artist-designer, photographer, music video director, and, most importantly, a member of the dark industrial duo Coil.
Interestingly, in the mid-1980s, British esoteric artists also recorded their own version of “Tainted Love,” producing a very dark, borderline hopeless video: not only was the rhythm slowed down by half and apocalyptic synthesizer sounds added to the melody, but the video plot depicted an HIV-positive young man spending his last days in a solitary hospital room. Additionally, in a brief but vivid cameo as the likely partner of the main character, Marc Almond himself appeared. Such intriguing connections.
Soft Cell performing “Tainted Love” on the popular TV show Top of the Pops
And perhaps this song would have been left alone and not reworked or performed in original ways anymore if in 2001 the USA hadn’t released the lighthearted comedy Not Another Teen Movie — a genre mix of teens, school, first dates, prom, American football, and 18+ jokes.
You probably don’t remember it immediately, but you may have heard the song from it. It was performed by the American band Marilyn Manson, and it is not as dark as Coil’s version (what gloom can there be in an American teen comedy?), and if answering which version the American eccentrics covered, the answer lies at the very beginning of the track, where samples from Soft Cell’s 1981 hit sound prominently — which, no matter what, remains the best version of “Tainted Love.”
