Gloria Richetta Jones (born October 19, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California. She recorded the 1965 hit song "Tainted Love". She was a member of the T.Rex, as a keyboardist and backing vocalist, from 1973 to 1976.
Jones was born in Cincinnati, Ohio
and moved to Los Angeles at the age of seven, where she
first started singing. Jones' first taste of fame came at the age of 14,
when, while still at school, she formed with Frankie Kahrl and Billy Preston the successful gospel group the COGIC Singers, with whom she recorded the album It's a Blessing. Although she remained with the group for some four years, she soon found herself drawn into the Los Angeles pop scene.
In 1964, Jones, in her late teens, was discovered by the songwriter Ed Cobb. Signing with Cobb's Greengrass Productions, she recorded her first hit record, "Heartbeat Pts 1 & 2," which Cobb wrote and produced. She toured
the United States, performing on several American television programs. "Heartbeat" became a rhythm and blues tune which was recorded later by Dusty Springfield, Spencer Davis and many other artists. By then, Jones had recorded other songs for Uptown Records, a subsidiary of Capitol/EMI. Included among these was another Cobb-written song, "Tainted Love". So strong was Jones's following in Northern England that she was proclaimed the "Northern Queen of Soul."
Jones also recorded an album for the Uptown label entitled Come Go with Me which was released in 1966. Jones studied piano, and acquired an advanced classical degree. In 1968, she joined the cast of Catch My Soul, a rock and soul version of the play Othello, which included cast members Jerry Lee Lewis, The Blossoms, and Dr. John. During the summer of 1968, she performed in a play called Revolution in Los Angeles. That winter, she joined the Los Angeles cast of Hair, the musical. Eventually, she was to meet Pam Sawyer, who asked her to write for Motown Records. Jones and Sawyer were among the second string of writers at Motown, but still wrote for such artists as Gladys Knight & the Pips, Commodores, The Four Tops and The Jackson 5.
As Jones was also initially a singer for the label, protocol demanded a
pseudonym, so for some of her earlier co-writes she used the name
LaVerne Ware. Songs that Jones worked on during this period include The Supremes' "Have I Lost You" (writer), Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross' "My Mistake" (writer), Junior Walker's "I Ain't Goin' Nowhere" (writer/producer) and the Four Tops' "Just
Seven Numbers" (writer). The most remembered song that Jones penned was Gladys Knight and the Pips' "If I Were Your Woman", which was nominated for a Grammy in 1971. Jones left Motown at the end of 1973, following the release of her album Share My Love.
In 1972, she was recommended by Warner Brothers' Bob Regere to sing backing vocals behind T. Rex at Winterland in San Francisco.
She sang backing vocals and played clavinet with T. Rex from 1973 to 1977. Her rendition of "Dock of the Bay" appears as a bonus track on T.Rex's album Bolan's Zip Gun. Jones released an album in 1976, called Vixen, featuring several songs written by Bolan, and he also was the producer.
She was the driver of the car that crashed and killed Bolan on September 16, 1977. In 1978, she released the album Windstorm,
which was a dedication to the memory of Bolan. On the back cover, it is
written "Special Dedication in memory of my son's father, Marc Bolan,
whom we miss very much." Her single "Bring on the Love" was a success on
the American R&B chart. Jones stayed in the music industry for several years after, releasing an album produced by Ed Cobb, titled Reunited in 1981. She also collaborated again with Billy Preston and other Cogic Singers for a 1984 reunion album The Cogic's. She has since worked as a musical supervisor for films.
