let the muSSSic play

This is a cover of a 1964 song by Soul singer Gloria Jones, whose original version became something of a hit on the UK Northern Soul circuit. She was good friends with Marc Bolan and joined his group T-Rex as a backup singer and keyboard player in 1974. They later married, and she was driving the car (a Mini) at the time of the accident that killed him in Barnes Common, South London in 1977.

This was written by Ed Cobb, who was the manager of the Standells and the Chocolate Watchband, for whom he also wrote songs, including "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White." (thanks, nick - London, England)

Soft Cell is the duo of Marc Almond and David Ball. They started recording this as a "throwaway cover song." The choices were "Tainted Love" or a Frankie Valli song.

In the book 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, Marc Almond called this song "A mixture of cold electronics with an over-passionate, over-exuberant, slightly out of key vocal." Almond recalls, "Dave (Ball) introduced me to the record and I loved it so much and we wanted an interesting song for a encore number in our show. Dave loved Northern Soul and it was a novelty to have an electronic synthesizer band doing a Soul song. When we signed with our record company, they wanted to record it. They told us to put bass, guitar and drums on it as they said it was too odd. They put it out anyway and the next thing it was gathering radio play and then it was #1. I was fascinated that it was originally by Gloria Jones, the girlfriend of Marc Bolan and I'd always been a T-Rex fan." (thanks, Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England)

The whip-crack sounds were made on hand-held synth-drums.

The style of the backing vocals were copied from "Heart Full of Soul" by the Yardbirds.

As AIDS began to spread, this song took on new meaning. Soft Cell's Mark Almond thinks there is an unintentional relation to this song to the rise of AIDS in gay communities when it was released.

In the US, Soft Cell is a one-hit-wonder, but they did very well in the UK, scoring many other hits like "Bed Sitter," "Say Hello Wave Goodbye" and "Torch."

In 1981, this was Britain's Top Single of the Year. It recharted there in May 1991, hitting #5.

The 12-inch dance single features a medley of "Tainted Love" and "Where Did Our Love Go." (thanks, Brad Wind - Miami, FL)

This was used in a Levi's commercial where the sound of an EKG in an operating room starts to sound like the song and the staff begins singing along.

Marilyn Manson covered this in 2001 for the film Not Another Teen Movie. While performing at Glastonbury in 2002, Mark Almond jokingly said "This is a Marilyn Manson song" before performing it. (thanks, Adam - Dewsbury, England)

This was used in the movie Coneheads in the scene where Dan Akroyd's character is bringing his daughter and some friends to school. The friends mock the musical notes after the vocal phrase, "Sometimes I feel I have to...Get away" (thanks, chet - saratoga springs, NY)

Gloria Jones has said that she considers the Soft Cell version to be the best one: "I loved the emotion in his voice. Their version was far better than mine."

This reached #1 in 17 different countries. In the US, it spent 43 weeks on the Top 100 chart, which was a longevity record at the time. (thanks, Adam - Dewsbury, England, for above 2)

Rhianna's sampled this on her 2006 song "S.O.S (Rescue Me)." (thanks, nathan - l-burg, KY)

This was covered by the Palast Orchester and their singer, Max Raabe - German performers who play in the style of 1920s-1930s dance bands. It's on their 2002 album Super Hits Nummer 2, which also features renditions of "Lady Marmalade," "Uptown Girl" and "Let's Talk About Sex." (thanks, Katie - Melbourne, Australia)

This song is a description of the way you need to survive in capitalistic society. It deals with Manson's personal struggle of being a wormboy (or middle class loser) to being a famous Rock Star. He's making a link between the American Media and Nazi propaganda, as well as the need to to be physically perfect because of the hyper-reality we are brainwashed by. It's also about the Rock Star looking down on the worms that make him what he is - this need to be more then a worm is what made him a star. The average rebel can relate to the song because Manson is making ugly fashionable, which is easier to achieve than the perfection we see on other CD covers and on MTV. (thanks, Mac TheKnife - Cape Town, South Africa)

The "Antichrist Superstar" is a character Manson took on to make people question their belief in God. It is a play on "Jesus Christ, Superstar," which was the name of a Broadway play.

Radio stations usually play an edited version that says "every other hater" rather than "every motherf***er." (thanks, Nick - Paramus, NJ)

The Eurythmics originally recorded this in 1982. Manson gave it a much more ominous sound fitting of the band.

The album is a collection of remixes and covers, with a few originals. This was the only song to get a lot of attention.

This paved the way for Manson's next record, Antichrist Superstar, to debut at #3 on the US pop album charts. The top 2 spots were held by Celine Dion and Kenny G.

Around the time this was released, Manson was gaining a cult following of alienated white suburban teens.

This became a hit thanks to MTV, which declared this a "Buzzworthy" video and put it in heavy rotation.

This was produced by Nine Inch Nails leader and Manson's mentor, Trent Reznor.

Manson often comes up with song inspiration in his dreams, but the idea to cover this song came from his first acid trip, according to his autobiography The Long Hard Road out of Hell. He says that he hallucinated a "slower, meaner" version of the dance hit playing, sung in his voice. (thanks, Stefano - Old Bridge, NJ)

In Manson's auto-biography, he related to this song by mentioning that he met people who wanted to be abused by him; and who wanted to use him as well. (thanks, Renae - Mill Grove, PA)