Soft Cell - Tainted Love on Pure 80’s

paul and jim......absolutely fascinating info......i didn't realize the radio biz was so complex......i thought you guys just played what the labels and the callers wanted you to......keep up the great work....

You probably know that the promo 45 medley can be extracted from the 12" version. Here are instructions for doing just that. (Yay!)

The 12" version is found on Richard Blade's Flashback Favorites Volume 3 (Oglio/Sony Music Special Products A 24353, 1993 - printed 8:55, actual 8:55) I actually recommend this CD and the others in the series - they're mastered quite well, with very few instances of clipping.

Based on the timings from the above CD, do this:

Remove the first 21-1/2 beats, from 0:00.0-0:09.1.
Edit at the first chord-like synth sound before the downbeat at the 9.3 second mark.
Keep the 344 beats (?) from 0:09.1-2:31.7.
After the second repetition of the line "touch me baby tainted love", edit one-half a beat after the downbeat. In other words, if you consider the repeating synth "dum dum"s throughout "Tainted Love", leave one "dum" before the edit at 2:31.7, and cut the other "dum". (Eloquent, eh?)
Remove the 312 beats from 2:31.7-4:40.4.
Edit one beat after the downbeat where the drum sounds change to the "snappy" sound used in "Where Did Our Love Go". In other words, the edit should go on the first "snap" sound at 4:40.4.
Keep the 239 beats from 4:40.4-6:19.1.
There's a true downbeat at 6:19.1.
Put a 48-beat sinusoidal fade from 5:59.3-6:19.1.

Your mixdown will run 4:01.3, with edits at 0:00.0 and 2:22.6, with a 48-beat fade from 3:41.5 to 4:01.3.

There's an insignificant difference in pitch/tempo between the 45 and the version on CD. The 45 runs 145.0 to 145.4 BPM (beginning-to-end of song), and the Richard Blade CD runs 145.2 to 145.5 BPM. Not significant in the least.

I'm going to play with my new scanner to try and post some pictures of the 45 labels, and I'll see if I can somehow post a short audio clip of just the edit from the 2:22 mark...

Edited by crapfromthepast

Getting back to Aaron's initial inquiry that began this thread, does anyone know where the version of "Tainted Love" containing the opening sound effects with no underlying beat comes from? As I commented earlier, I've heard this version on the radio. Could this be a U.K. 45 version?

torcan wrote: Oddly enough, it was a hit on the Toronto radio stations at the end of '81, and I don't believe they ever played the medley version.

The first add for Soft Cell here in Ontario was indeed in November 1981 by CKOC in Hamilton. The first hit version (the commercial 45-rpm and promo were identical), was on Attic records (which was a Canadian label), though I'm sure some Sire pressings followed. It was simply the "Tainted Love" portion of the 12" mix faded off at the end of his vocals, "Tainted Love...Tainted Love". Though CFTR in Toronto played this single much less than CKOC, I still think they carted up the same record.

CHUM-FM, which was an AOR transitioning to new wave at the time was playing the 12" in it's entirety. But they would play the LP version during the Top 30 albums countdown. The LP was a different mix entirely.

Then again we bring up Stereo Rock as carried by Rock 102 in Buffalo. They carried five months later, what you folks are referring to as the "medley", which abruptly kicks in to "Where Did Our..." right after "touch me baby, Tainted Love". I think most American stations carried that, though AT 40 carried the fade version that I first heard six months before. I had never heard a Canuck station play the medley in fact.

crapfromthepast wrote: The A-side of the commercial 45. (Note the "RE-1" - is there an earlier release?)

My commercial 45 also has the "RE-1" on it.

crapfromthepast wrote: I have another pressing of the rerelease 45 with a slightly different font, the "Sire" under the logo instead of off to the right side, and no ridges between the label and the groove. Same version, though.

The one with "Sire" under the logo and no ridges between the label and the groove is a later pressing. These also probably came from two different pressing plants, but one is definitely later than the other. The logo change was made sometime around 1985 or 1986. The ridges are a telltale sign that the 45 was pressed by Capitol/EMI, which handled most of Warner Bros.' pressing work in the late '70s and early '80s (they appear on 45s pressed by Capitol/EMI from roughly 1970 to 1985). After that, Warner Bros. began shifting its pressing work to the two formerly independent plants that Warner Music had bought a few years earlier, Specialty and Allied. The copy without the ridges is likely an in-house Warner Music pressing from one of those two plants. Ironically, Capitol/EMI began phasing out vinyl production at its plants around 1985, and began contracting with Warner Music to press some of its records, the exact opposite of what the situation had been just a few years earlier.

My original commercial 45 of "Tainted Love" was pressed by Capitol. It has the ridges, as well as markings in the trail-off vinyl indicating that it came from Capitol's "East Coast" plant in Winchester, VA. It looks identical to the label scan upthread except for one small detail: the rim print on my copy does not contain Warner Bros.' address. I have to admit that I'm not sure what this might indicate.

The only other Soft Cell 45 that I have is "Loving You, Hating Me", which I believe was the follow-up to "Tained Love". I have two copies, both of which are mono/stereo promos (which ties in with the recent comments in another thread that some record companies, Warner Music included, continued to make mono/stereo promo 45s into the early eighties). Neither copy has the ridges; both appear to be Warner Music pressings, probably from the "West Coast" plant, Allied Records in Los Angeles. Both have Warner Bros.' address in the rim print.       

Edited by MCT1