Gloria Jones Gloria Jones Gloria Richetta Jones (born October 19, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California. She recorded the 1965 hit song "Tainted Love", later covered by the British synthpop duo Soft Cell. She was the girlfriend of glam rock artist Marc Bolan of the band T. Rex until his death in 1977, and was a member of the band, as a keyboardist and backing vocalist, from 1973 to 1976. Jones was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and moved to Los Angeles, California, at the age of seven, where she first started singing. Jones' first taste of fame came at
T. Rex (band) 15 September 1977 drinking at the Speakeasy and then dining at Morton's club on Berkeley Square, in Mayfair, Central London. While driving home early in the morning of 16 September, Jones crashed Bolan's purple Mini 1275GT into a tree (now the site of Bolan's Rock Shrine), after failing to negotiate a small humpback bridge near Gipsy Lane on Queens Ride, Barnes, southwest London, a few miles from his home at 142 Upper Richmond Road West in East Sheen. While Jones was severely injured, Bolan was killed in the crash, two weeks before his 30th birthday. Bolan's death ended the band.