![]() It also enabled more time to be devoted to the making of promo videos, something that was just beginning to become an increasingly important part of the efforts to make every single a huge hit. Marc Almond and Dave Ball simply ignored all the fuss and got on with making music in the studio – like most synth bands, with the exception of OMD, the idea of going out and performing around the UK tour circuit was never entertained. It would take the later success of Say Hello, Wave Goodbye to finally turn Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret into a Top 5 album. ![]() It was also compared unfavourably to synth albums by the likes of Human League, OMD, Depeche Mode and Heaven 17, while the tabloid papers had a field day suggesting it was a perverted record that no parent would want in their home, coverage which led some of the larger retailers, such as Woolworths and WH Smith, to go easy on the promotion activities with it being hidden away rather than on full display. ![]() “The Soft Cell sex strategy should offer something spicy, rude and even a little wonderful… but Soft Cell are conceptualists who rely on too many preconceptions and play around with too many ideas to convince you of any personal energy or commitment… Soft Cell are very plain fare – unspectacular music and very drab and flat lyrics, wrapped in a hint of special promise which is never realised” Part of this was down to very harsh reviews in the UK music papers, with the NME being particularly scathing. The hit single helped create a huge buzz of expectancy around the duo’s debut album, helped also by the fact that Bedsitter had proved to be another hit single.īut the album was something of a flop in that it didn’t go Top 10 on its release in November 1981. The fact it was, like many others labelled as Northern Soul, such an obscurity was a big factor in many people initially believing that Soft Cell‘s electronic take was an original. A second version in 1976, produced by Jones’s boyfriend Marc Bolan, was issued as a single to absolutely no fanfare at all. The original version, by Gloria Jones, dated from 1964, and was a b-side. Released in August 1981, it would go on to spend 16 weeks in the Top 75, including five at either #1 or #2, selling in excess of 1 million copies. Is Tainted Love the biggest ever hit involving the cover of a previously obscure and unknown song? I’m struggling, off the top of my head, to come up with anything else. Soft Cell – Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret (1981)
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