Album · Soft Cell
Non‐Stop Erotic Cabaret by Soft Cell
Non‐Stop Erotic Cabaret is an album by Soft Cell, released in 1981. 3 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 96 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Tainted Love”, on 76 lists and voted number one twice.
Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, the debut album from English synth-pop duo Soft Cell, came out on Some Bizzare on 27 November 1981 with Mike Thorne producing, and it plays like a walk through the neon back streets after closing time: cheap, chilly synths, electronic pulses ticking like a taxi meter, and a voice that swoons and sneers in the same breath.
The door opener was a cover. "Tainted Love", the Gloria Jones song, was reworked into a cold, twitching electro lament that went to number one around the world and ended up as the second best-selling single in Britain that year. It dragged the album along in its wake, so much so that American shops reportedly put in advance orders for more than 200,000 copies.
The duo didn't stop at one hit, either. "Bedsitter" and "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" both made the UK top five, and the grubby, leering "Sex Dwarf" showed there was plenty more sleaze where the singles came from. Critics and buyers alike came around.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Non‐Stop Erotic Cabaret on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tainted Love#269 of all time | 76 | #1 | 2 | 1982–2026 | |
| 2 | Sex Dwarf | 17 | #3 | – | 1982–2006 | |
| 3 | Say Hello, Wave Goodbye | 3 | #94 | – | 1988–1999 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.