Soft Cell's David Ball, whose deliciously sleazy synth-pop arrangement lifted the English duo's 1981 hit “Tainted Love” to the top of the U.K. singles chart, died Wednesday. He was 66 years old.
The producer's death was announced in a post on Soft Cell's website, which did not state the cause but said Ball died at his home in London. On Facebook, the duo's singer, Marc Almond, wrote that Ball's health “had been slowly declining in recent years” due to an unspecified illness.
“It's hard to write this, let alone process it, as Dave was in a great place emotionally,” Almond said on the Soft Cell site. “He was focused and very happy with the new album that we literally completed just a few days ago. It's very sad because 2026 was going to be such an uplifting year for him, and I take some solace in the fact that he heard the finished album and felt it was a great piece of work.”
Ball and Almond performed as Soft Cell at last month's Rewind Festival in England; The LP they had just completed will be titled “Danceteria” in honor of the New York City nightclub that became an incubator for new wave and synth-pop in the early '80s.
Soft Cell was an “experimental electro band.” [writing] weird little pop tunes about consumerism,” as Almond told The Guardian in 2017, when the duo decided to record a cover of “Tainted Love,” which soul singer Gloria Jones had performed with little success in 1964.
Ball came up with his version of the song using his “dodgy old Korg synthesizers” as well as a state-of-the-art Synclavier that cost more than £100,000, according to The Guardian. Soft Cell's cover looked “twisted and strange,” Ball said, which fit the “odd couple: Marc, this gay guy in makeup, and me, a big guy who looked like a caretaker.”
Featuring Almond's breathy vocals over Ball's sexy but sinister production, “Tainted Love” reached No. 1 in the UK the same year as Human League's “Don't You Want Me” and Adam & the Ants' “Prince Charming.” In the United States, “Tainted Love” peaked at number 8 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1982.
Today, the song has been streamed more than a billion times on Spotify, kept alive in part by Rihanna's prominent sampling of “Tainted Love” on her 2006 hit “SOS.”
Ball was born on May 3, 1959 in Chester, England, and grew up in an adoptive family in Blackpool. He and Almond formed Soft Cell in 1979 after meeting as students at Leeds Polytechnic, where Almond was known for an artwork in which he “was naked in front of a full-length mirror, smearing himself with cat food and fucking himself,” Ball told The Guardian.
The duo released their debut album, “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret,” in 1981, then followed it up with two more LPs before breaking up in 1984. “Few groups enjoyed perversity as much,” said Rolling Stone, which called “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret” a “conceptual salute to the sex industry.” In 2022, Pitchfork said the duo's debut offered “a snapshot of pre-AIDS queer life at its heady peak.”
After the breakup of Soft Cell, Ball collaborated with Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle and formed a dance group called Grid with producer Richard Norris; He also worked in the studio with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Pet Shop Boys and David Bowie.
Soft Cell reunited in 2001 and again in 2018; the statement on the band's website said “Danceteria” would be released in early 2026. According to the statement, Ball's survivors include four children.
