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 gives it the white sunglasses treatment.
But first, as always, the original that all covers must be compared to.
And today’s challenger, Roundheels.
Postcard ChaCha: Dressed in all white, complete with white sunglasses, the lead singer for the Roundheels looks like the picture perfect hipster. To top it off, the Urban Dictionary educated me to the fact that Roundheels is a noun meaning- A promiscuous person, usu. a promiscuous female. See “slut”, etc. More commonly used in the 1950’s, this term has fallen into general disuse, but may still be heard in fiction that takes place in that era, or in circles that consider retro-talk cool. The URB uses it in a sentence- “I wouldn’t trust that little roundheels as far as I could throw her.”
Sadly, there is nothing original about this track. If Wolf Parade had taken a stab at this one, I have a feeling it would sound eerily similar, but probably a hell of a lot better. My advice to Roundheels lead singer would be to find his own voice.
Postcard Editor: From just listening to this one “Meh.” From watching it “Oh man, fuck these guys.”
CHALLENGER STANDINGS ACCORDING TO CHACHA:
1. Dave Phillips
2. Stella Starlight Trio
3. Max Raabe
4. Ali Dee
5. The Re-Entrants
6. My Brightest Diamond
7. Hannah Peel
8. Ruth Swan(n)
9. Marilyn Manson
10. East German Polka Band
11. The Swampy’s
12. Bilal
13. Inspiral Carpets
14. Bluekilla
15. Alejandra Guzman
16. Shades Apart
17. Pussycat Dolls
18. Blues MAMA
19. Straight No Chaser
20. Coil
21. Access Zero
22. Roundheels
23. Impedance
24. Ashley Nicole
CHALLENGER STANDINGS ACCORDING TO EDITOR:
1. Shades Apart
2. Dave Phillips
3. East German Polka Band
4. Bilal
5. Inspiral Carpets
6. Hannah Peel
7. My Brightest Diamond
8. Marilyn Manson
9. The Re-Entrants
10. Ali Dee
11. Ruth Swan(n)
12. Coil
13. The Swampy’s
14. Alejandra Guzman
15. Pussycat Dolls
16. Bluekilla
17. Straight No Chaser
18. Impedance
19. Blues MAMA
20. Roundheels
21. Max Raabe
22. Stella Starlight Trio
23. Access Zero
24. Ashley Nicole
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