'Tainted Love' Musician Dave Ball Is Dead at 66

He was in the duo Soft Cell, whose cover of the song become a huge hit in 1981
Posted Oct 23, 2025 11:55 AM CDT

Dave Ball, the influential synth-pop musician best known as one half of Soft Cell, has died at age 66. Representatives say he died "peacefully in his sleep" at his London home but didn't give a cause of death, reports the Guardian. Marc Almond, Ball's longtime Soft Cell collaborator, called him a "wonderfully brilliant musical genius" and said he was the "heart and soul" of the group, per the BBC.

Ball, who was raised in the UK's Blackpool after being adopted at 18 months, was drawn early to electronics and the music of Kraftwerk. After his father's death, Ball used his inheritance to buy a guitar that he later traded for a synthesizer. He met Almond at Leeds Polytechnic, and together they formed Soft Cell in 1979, blending Ball's interest in electronic music with Almond's taste for pop and soul. The pair broke through with their 1981 cover of "Tainted Love," which became an international hit and helped take synth-pop mainstream. The BBC calls debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret a "classic of electronic music."

Soft Cell recorded a string of UK Top 10 hits, including "Bedsitter" and "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye," and released the platinum-selling Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret before splitting in 1984. Ball later found success with the electronic duo The Grid and worked as a producer for artists such as Kylie Minogue. Soft Cell reunited several times, releasing new music as recently as 2024. Ball faced serious health issues after he fell down some stairs in 2022, resulting in a seven-month hospital stay that included time in an induced coma.

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