The Gloria Jones Challenge – Round 11

The Gloria Jones Challenge is our ongoing examination of the many, many, many covers of Jones’ classic Northern Soul jam “Tainted Love” – to see how they stack up compared to the original.

Today’s challenger takes the song to the dance floor, specifically a decidedly late 80’s dance floor.  Also it gets a little NSFW toward the end, so we recommend headphones.

But first, as always, the original.

And now, the challenger – Impedance

Postcard ChaCha: This little gem comes to us from the band Impedance, circa 1989. Not much to it really, spoken vocals, a drum machine made beat, a few oddly placed guitar solos and breaks; it’s club music from the 80’s, there is no doubt about it. But it’s the last minute of this version that stands out from the rest of our contenders in it’s own special way. Prior to this listen, none of our challengers have displayed such an overt, Madonna like sexuality. Skip to 5:00, wait for it….waaaaaaait….aaaaaand..

.awwwwkwaaard momentonthedancefloor!

 

Postcard Editor: Well this is certainly the first version of the song that I’ve laughed throughout at, so I guess that’s….something?  It’s hard to believe that this isn’t a SNL sketch, but no I do recall the ridiculousness of the 80’s (although honestly 89 seems kind of pushing it for this) and when a band’s name is a pun and they’re not a ska band…well, there ya go.  The spoken word performances with random words pronounced oddly, the shredding yet disembodied guitar solos, the over the top R rated breathy female vocals…well, I just hope Impedance feels as silly about it today as I felt playing this aloud in my house.

CHALLENGER STANDINGS ACCORDING TO CHACHA:

1. Dave Phillips
2. Stella Starlight Trio
3. Max Raabe
4. The Re-Entrants
5. My Brightest Diamond
6. Marilyn Manson
7. Alejandra Guzman
8. Shades Apart
9. Pussycat Dolls
10. Straight No Chaser
11. Impedance

CHALLENGER STANDINGS ACCORDING TO EDITOR:

1. Shades Apart
2. Dave Phillips
3. My Brightest Diamond
4. Marilyn Manson
5. The Re-Entrants
6. Alejandra Guzman
7. Pussycat Dolls
8. Straight No Chaser
9. Impedance
10. Max Raabe
11. Stella Starlight Trio

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