Gloria Jones

Gloria Jones (born 19 October 1945, in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American singer. She first recorded the 1964 northern soul classic Tainted Love, later a hit for the British synth-pop duo Soft Cell in 1981.

Gloria Jones was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 7, where she first started singing. Gloria’s first taste of fame came at the age of 14, when, while still at school, she formed with Frankie Kahrl and Billy Preston the successful gospel group the Cogic Singers. Although she remained with the group for some four years, she soon found herself drawn into the Los Angeles pop scene.

In 1964, Gloria Jones, in her late-teens, was discovered by hit songwriter Ed Cobb. Signing with Cobb’s Greengrass Productions, Gloria recorded her first hit record, “Heartbeat Pts 1 & 2,” which Cobb wrote and produced. She toured the country, performing on several American TV shows, footage of which still exists. One memorable performance occurred at a Rock and Soul show in Disneyland in the summer of 1965. “Heartbeat” became a classic rhythm and blues tune which later was recorded by Dusty Springfield, Spencer Davis and many other artists who attempted to capture the Gloria Jones sound.

By then, Gloria had gone on to record other songs for Uptown records, a subsidiary of Capitol/EMI. Included among these tunes was another Cobb written song, “Tainted Love”. In fact the group, Soft Cell, whose version of “Tainted Love” reached #1 worldwide, originally heard Gloria sing this classic years before in Northern England. So strong was Gloria’s following there that she was proclaimed the “Northern Queen of Soul.” Gloria also recorded an LP for the Uptown label entitled Come Go With Me which was released in 1966.