Gloria Jones

Discussions centered on rock music history often reduce Gloria Jones to little more than an obscure reference point. During the mid-'60s she laid down the first recording of “Tainted Love,” later turned into a massive worldwide success by Soft Cell in 1982. She also served as the partner of British glam-rock figure Marc Bolan while contributing vocals and keyboards to his group T. Rex. Her substantial gifts as a soul performer remain overshadowed, in part because most of her own discs stay out of print.

Her place among rock’s notable figures rests largely on the strength of “Tainted Love.” That driving mid-'60s soul stomper bears scant resemblance to Soft Cell’s fragile synth-pop remake and ranks among the memorable ’60s singles that somehow never charted. Another pulsing near-hit, “Heartbeat,” was cut with producer Ed Cobb, better known for his garage-pop sessions alongside the Standells and the Chocolate Watch Band. Cobb supplied the songs for both “Heartbeat” and “Tainted Love,” yet Jones herself demonstrated songwriting ability by co-authoring the 1974 hit duet “My Mistake” for Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross. Commercial gains stayed confined to regional markets, prompting her, like several other lesser-known American soul artists, to relocate to Great Britain, where Northern Soul enthusiasts’ devoted following kept her performing steadily.

She entered the T. Rex lineup in 1974, by which point the band’s popularity was already in steep decline, taking on keyboard and backing-vocal duties. Her romantic involvement with Bolan encouraged him to steer toward a soul-inflected, dance-friendly sound. In return he lent support to her solo outing Vixen, supplying guitar parts and original material. After the birth of their child, the relationship ended abruptly when Bolan died in a 1977 car crash that Jones was driving.