Born in Cincinnati, Gloria Jones started singing at a very early age would move to L.A., and at 14 record an album with the great Billy Preston.
By the early 60's she was recording regularly and toured all over the United States. She started to perform in musicals as well and has credits for writing many songs including one for the Supremes and Jr. Walker and the All-Stars.
She would meet Marc Bolan of T-Rex in 1969 and would be together until they had an accident (she was driving) in which Bolan was killed (1977). Gloria suffered injuries that ruined her voice and ended her singing career.
Bolan and Jones had a son Rolan Bolan who was 2 at the time of the accident. Problems with the estate resulted in their being near penniless. Marc Bolan's friend David Bowie paid for Rolan's education. He has released and album and has a band. Jones runs an orphanage in Sierra Leone.
"Tainted Love" would be the first of her recordings after being signed to the Champion label. It was released as a "B" side to a single that flopped.
In 1976 (before his death), Mark Bolan produced another recording of the song sung again by Gloria Jones, but that flopped as well.
In 1981, Soft Cell covered the song with a completely different arrangement that was full of synth and a slower tempo than the previous two versions done by Jones. The low vocals by Mark Almond gave the song a different feel as well. The song was a huge hit in England and would make it to #8 on American charts. It would stay in the top 40 for nearly a year. The timing was perfect at a time when synth dance music was the rage.
"Tainted Love" would be released as an EP as well where the song transitions into the Supremes "Where Did Our Love Go?"
According to Wikipedia, the songs video was ranked by VH1 as the fifth best music video ever.
