Tainted Love~~Gloria Jones VS Soft Cell

NO YOU CANT VOTE FOR MARYLIN MANSON OR PUSSYCAT DOLLS OR ANY OTHER RETARDED VERSIONS

j/k those versions aren't retarded but they're not part of this poll

So much for my write-in vote for Coil, then.

really?

Seriously, though. Just as Aretha Franklin did for "Respect," Coil took an innocuous love song and infused it with the pressing social urgency of the times, that being gay culture and the AIDs crisis, and completely made the song their own in the process. I can only listen to that version once in a blue moon, b/c it is just so fucking crushing. Here, I'll vote for Soft Cell.

I realize that the Soft Cell version was likely also directed at the AIDs crisis, but it is still an upbeat dance song (nothing wrong with that or anything), but Coil took the same lyrics and made them sound like death itself.

Soft Cell's version was a bit too early too be about the AIDS crisis. AIDs was only reported for the first time in 1981, the same year that single came out, and the crisis mentality only began a couple of years later.

Wow, I did not realize it came out that early. It was a bit ahead of its time sonically, then, no?

Not really, for 1981. Human League, OMD, etc not to mention Suicide & Kraftwerk.

lol I suppose I need to pay a little more attention to chronology (I mean Kraftwerk, sure) but I was also unaware that HL & OMD (both bands I like & whose records I own) were releasing music that early.

Soft Cell, duh. Bonus points for "Where Did Our Love Go?" extended mix.

I was about to say I'd vote Soft Cell on the condition it's NOT the "Where Did Our Love Go?" medley mix. ha!

Human League's first album came out in 1979.

It's worth noting, re Coil, that Mark Almond appears in the video for their version. As the Angel of Death, no less.

I'm not voting as I can't pick between the versions. They're both amazing.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I was about to say I'd vote Soft Cell on the condition it's NOT the "Where Did Our Love Go?" medley mix. ha!

― Johnny Fever

!!! what could you possibly have against the "where did our love go" version?

I hate 9.9 out of every 10 medley singles.

Not just singles, but medleys in general.

Didn't the Inspirial Carpets cover this too?

i thought i loved the soft cell version, right up until i heard the gloria jones og, and it's just ridiculously better, and i realised that had i been familiar with it first i'd probably be pretty pissed off at soft cell.

Yeah, Gloria Jones is far the better verzh which will make her crushing defeat by Soft Cell here all the more tsk-worthy.

while we're here, does anyone have further gloria jones recommendations?

BOMP BOMP

As Momus would say, a false binary opposition...

But Soft Cell 12" with Tainted Dub for me.

Gloria Jones version is totally fresh.

Would have said Soft Cell, but last time I went dancing they played the Gloria Jones vers and it seriously sounded completely amazing.

both great obv; Coil too

Both great, prefer Soft Cell, prefer the medley.

unfair poll

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

21 wrong people :(

you're only wrong if you don't love both

^^^listen to the man

ILM in getting it wrong shocker

Really.

Even Gloria Jones has said that the Soft Cell version is better!

Mind you, what does she know...