With its cover version of "Tainted Love," the 1965 track originally recorded by Gloria Jones, Soft Cell scored one of the biggest hit singles of the 1980s. The Leeds, England-based duo consisted of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball, who came together in 1978 after meeting in school. The group's synthpop and new wave songs were characteristic of the time, full of multiple synthesizer parts, robotic drum machine tracks and sappy lovesick lyrics. Though Soft Cell would eventually find worldwide success with the aforementioned "Tainted Love," it never did better than at home in the UK, where it landed ten Top 40 hits in its seven year run. Almond and Ball split up in 1984, but reunited in 2001 to tour and record new material.
