Inspired by Black Music Month, LGBTQ Pride Month, and the June 22 birthdays of Cyndi Lauper, Jimmy Somerville, Todd Rundgren, The Turtles’ Howard Kaylan, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, Kris Kristoffersson, Schoolly-D, Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside, Peter Asher, Jai Rodriguez, Jesus Jones’ Mike Edwards, and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ Dicky Barrett.
Inspired by the passing of Little Richard and the May 9 birthdays of Ghostface Killah, Sam & Dave’s Dave Prater, Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, Billy Joel, Andrew W.K., Hank Snow, The Housemartins/The Beautiful South’s Paul Heaton, The Crickets’ Sonny Curtis, The Ventures’ Nokie Edwards, Cyrkle’s Don Dannemann, Clint Holmes and Tommy Roe.
Inspired by the April 24 birthdays of Barbra Streisand, Kelly Clarkson, Kehlani, Robert Knight, Freddie Scott, The Fortunes’ Glen Dale, and Oak Ridge Boys’ Richard Sterban; and the April 23 birthdays of Roy Orbison, The Wedding Present’s David Gedge, Jónsi, Ray Peterson, and John Miles.
Inspired by the April 15 birthdays of The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, Dave Edmunds, Margo Price, Bessie Smith, Samantha Fox, and 4 Non-Blondes’ Linda Perry.
Inspired by the February 20 birthdays of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, Rihanna, Steely Dan’s Walter Becker, J.Geils, Spirit’s Randy California, Stone Roses’ Ian Brown, Seal, Backstreet Boys’ Brian Littrell, and Lindisfarne’s Alan Hull.
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As a songwriter, Gloria Jones charted with Gladys Knight & the Pips’ “If I Were Your Woman,” the Four Tops’ “Just Seven Numbers (Can Straighten Out My Life),” and Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross’ “My Mistake (Was to Love You).” As a producer, Gloria Jones hit the top ten on the disco chart with Gonzalez’s “Haven’t Stopped Dancing Yet.” But as a lead singer, Jones failed to make the pop, r&b or dance charts.
In 1973, while on a trip to the United States, British DJ Richard Searling purchased a copy of a Gloria Jones single from 1965. The A-side was a song called “My Bad Boy’s Comin’ Home,” but it was the B-side that really got Searling’s attention.
Northern soul music (uptempo American soul music in a sixties Motown vein yet without commercial success) had a large cult following in the northern England at that time, and Searling played the Gloria Jones b-side during his sets.
Northern soul fan David Ball loved the song. When he and his musical partner, Mark Almond, who together comprised the duo Soft Cell, were looking for a song to cover, they went with the Jones song, thinking it would be interesting for a synth band to cover a soul tune. Their record label asked them to add guitar, bass and drums to the track, but the duo refused. Despite this, the label put out the singer. Almond told Rolling Stone magazine “We thought if we were really lucky, we’d scrape into the top 75 in Britain. We didn’t think anything would happen over here [in the US].”
Soft Cell’s recording of “Tainted Love” became a smash worldwide. In the US, it spent 43 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100, a record at that time. Said Gloria Jones of the Soft Cell recording “Their version was far better than mine.”
This week, Tunes du Jour celebrates Throwback Thursday with twenty great tunes from 1982, kicking off with Soft Cell’s version of “Tainted Love,” but first, check out Gloria Jones’ original:
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Today marks the annual commemoration of the birth of Annie Lennox, a widely observed cultural holiday, celebrated in Western Christianity every December 25 by millions of people around the world. Annie Lennox’s birthday is a civil holiday in many of the world’s nations, is celebrated by an increasing number of non-new wave fans, and is an integral part of the holiday season.
The birth year of Lennox is estimated among modern historians to have been between 1953 and 1955 AD.
The celebratory customs associated in various countries with Annie Lennox’s birthday have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian, and secular themes and origins. Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift giving, Eurythmics music and caroling, an angel playing with your heart, walking on broken glass, rain again, and sweet dreams. Because gift-giving and many other aspects of Annie Lennox’s birthday involve heightened economic activity among both Christians and non-Christians, her birthday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Annie Lennox’s birthday is a factor that has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world.
Source: Wikipedia