Soft Cell “Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go” 12″ single, 1981. Sire Records. I like to think that I had a hand in “Tainted Love” hitting #8 on the US charts and setting a Guinness World Record with its 43 consecutive week run on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart: during the summer of ‘81 my friend Jenny and I would spend hours harrassing the DJ’s at Appleton’s Top 40 radio station (I think WIXX) to play it. We’d scream with delight when it would come on and probably made up dance routines to perform in the backyard. Soft Cell, along with Human League, are responsible for the beginning of my British New Wave obsession.

The B-side of this 12″ single contains “Memorabilia” and “Tainted Dub.” “Memorabilia” is straight up 80′s British synth-pop. “Tainted Dub” is the experimental remix of “Tainted Love” – close to 10 minutes of synth noodling and vocal echoes; I can almost hear the producer saying “Hey, I wonder what THIS button does?!”

Here is a pretty cool demo version of the “Tainted Love”.