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Wicked Game
"Wicked Game" is a song by American musician Chris Isaak from his third album, Heart Shaped World (1989). It was produced by Erik Jacobsen and released as a single to little attention in July 1989 by Reprise Records; the song became a sleeper hit when Lee Chesnut, an Atlanta radio station music director who loved David Lynch films, began broadcasting it after hearing it in Lynch's film Wild at Heart (1990). The song quickly became an American top 10 hit in March 1991, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also became a No. 1 hit in Belgium and reached the top 10 in several other countries. Its accompanying music video, directed by Herb Ritts and filmed in Hawaii featuring Helena Christensen, won two awards at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards.
"Wicked Game" has been covered by a wide variety of musicians and has been featured in numerous films, television series, and commercials, to the point that Dazed magazine questioned whether it might be the most influential love song in modern music. It subsequently received retrospective critical acclaim, being listed in the 2010 book 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die and the updated edition of the 1989 book The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made.
The song is in B Dorian, performed in what AllMusic describes as a "brooding, sorrowfully conflicted" tone.
Although it is often interpreted as a ballad about unrequited love, Chris Isaak has said that the song was inspired by a telephone call from a woman offering to arrange a hook up, and is about "what happens when you have a strong attraction to people that aren't necessarily good for you". It was written shortly after the call.
During the sessions for Isaak's third album Heart Shaped World, many different versions and arrangements of the song were made before the final version was completed. James Calvin Wilsey wrote and played the distinctive guitar lead using a Fender Stratocaster's whammy bar; both the bassline and drums were sampled from previous recordings of the song and looped.
The Aberdeen Evening Express extolled the "haunting strains" of "Wicked Game." Grant Walters of Albumism praised the song as a "pristine union of Isaak's aching vocal and the desolate wail of James Calvin Wilsey's '65 Stratocaster." He added, "Underneath, the brushed drum loop, simple bass line, and muted background vocals create a simmering atmospheric buzz." Steve Huey of AllMusic described it as a "shimmering," "spare," "smoky," and "moody masterpiece." Larry Flick from Billboard magazine named it a "delicious treat." Alaister Moughan from Dazed wrote, "Some songs are masterpieces, some represent moments in time, and others are simply good jams. Chris Isaak's 'Wicked Game' is all three." Joe Rhodes from Entertainment Weekly stated that this is "perhaps the album's darkest mood piece," noting its "otherworldly" opening guitar line. Pan-European magazine Music & Media described it as a "laid-back C&W tinged song featuring Isaak's Orbison-esque vocals." Duncan Holland from Music Week felt its "dexterity and panache is something rarely heard. The touches of Roy Orbison only make it stronger and given the right airplay, Isaak should score a significant, if unpredictable hit." A reviewer from Sunday Life complimented it as a "brooding ballad, image-laden, and worthy of Roy Orbison in his heyday."
There are two different music videos for this song. The more well-known video was directed by Herb Ritts and shot in Hawaii at the short-lived Kamoamoa Beach in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. The newly formed black-sand beach was created from lava from Kilauea volcano flowing into the ocean about a mile away. The beach was covered by lava not long after the video was shot. The video features supermodel Helena Christensen rolling and frolicking on the beach with Isaak. It was mostly filmed in black and white. Christensen is topless through most of the video, although her nudity is concealed by camera angles. In the middle of the video, Christensen is seen only in her black lace bra and panty; other times, she wears only a men's white brief. The video achieved heavy rotation on MTV and MTV Europe in February 1991, winning the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Male Video and Best Cinematography at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. It was ranked number 13 on VH1's "100 Greatest Videos", number 3 on NME’s “Greatest Music Videos of all time”, number four on VH1's "50 Sexiest Video Moments", number 73 on Rolling Stone magazine's "The 100 Top Music Videos", number one on Rolling Stone magazine's "The 30 Sexiest Music Videos of All Time", and number one on Fuse's "40 Sexiest Videos" in 2010.
Another video was commissioned for the Wild at Heart VHS release and was directed by David Lynch. It features scenes of Lula Pace Fortune (Laura Dern) and Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage) from the film, interspersed with black-and-white footage of Isaak and his band performing the song. This video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Video from a Film.
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Wicked Game
"Wicked Game" is a song by American musician Chris Isaak from his third album, Heart Shaped World (1989). It was produced by Erik Jacobsen and released as a single to little attention in July 1989 by Reprise Records; the song became a sleeper hit when Lee Chesnut, an Atlanta radio station music director who loved David Lynch films, began broadcasting it after hearing it in Lynch's film Wild at Heart (1990). The song quickly became an American top 10 hit in March 1991, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also became a No. 1 hit in Belgium and reached the top 10 in several other countries. Its accompanying music video, directed by Herb Ritts and filmed in Hawaii featuring Helena Christensen, won two awards at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards.
"Wicked Game" has been covered by a wide variety of musicians and has been featured in numerous films, television series, and commercials, to the point that Dazed magazine questioned whether it might be the most influential love song in modern music. It subsequently received retrospective critical acclaim, being listed in the 2010 book 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die and the updated edition of the 1989 book The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made.
The song is in B Dorian, performed in what AllMusic describes as a "brooding, sorrowfully conflicted" tone.
Although it is often interpreted as a ballad about unrequited love, Chris Isaak has said that the song was inspired by a telephone call from a woman offering to arrange a hook up, and is about "what happens when you have a strong attraction to people that aren't necessarily good for you". It was written shortly after the call.
During the sessions for Isaak's third album Heart Shaped World, many different versions and arrangements of the song were made before the final version was completed. James Calvin Wilsey wrote and played the distinctive guitar lead using a Fender Stratocaster's whammy bar; both the bassline and drums were sampled from previous recordings of the song and looped.
The Aberdeen Evening Express extolled the "haunting strains" of "Wicked Game." Grant Walters of Albumism praised the song as a "pristine union of Isaak's aching vocal and the desolate wail of James Calvin Wilsey's '65 Stratocaster." He added, "Underneath, the brushed drum loop, simple bass line, and muted background vocals create a simmering atmospheric buzz." Steve Huey of AllMusic described it as a "shimmering," "spare," "smoky," and "moody masterpiece." Larry Flick from Billboard magazine named it a "delicious treat." Alaister Moughan from Dazed wrote, "Some songs are masterpieces, some represent moments in time, and others are simply good jams. Chris Isaak's 'Wicked Game' is all three." Joe Rhodes from Entertainment Weekly stated that this is "perhaps the album's darkest mood piece," noting its "otherworldly" opening guitar line. Pan-European magazine Music & Media described it as a "laid-back C&W tinged song featuring Isaak's Orbison-esque vocals." Duncan Holland from Music Week felt its "dexterity and panache is something rarely heard. The touches of Roy Orbison only make it stronger and given the right airplay, Isaak should score a significant, if unpredictable hit." A reviewer from Sunday Life complimented it as a "brooding ballad, image-laden, and worthy of Roy Orbison in his heyday."
There are two different music videos for this song. The more well-known video was directed by Herb Ritts and shot in Hawaii at the short-lived Kamoamoa Beach in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. The newly formed black-sand beach was created from lava from Kilauea volcano flowing into the ocean about a mile away. The beach was covered by lava not long after the video was shot. The video features supermodel Helena Christensen rolling and frolicking on the beach with Isaak. It was mostly filmed in black and white. Christensen is topless through most of the video, although her nudity is concealed by camera angles. In the middle of the video, Christensen is seen only in her black lace bra and panty; other times, she wears only a men's white brief. The video achieved heavy rotation on MTV and MTV Europe in February 1991, winning the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Male Video and Best Cinematography at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. It was ranked number 13 on VH1's "100 Greatest Videos", number 3 on NME’s “Greatest Music Videos of all time”, number four on VH1's "50 Sexiest Video Moments", number 73 on Rolling Stone magazine's "The 100 Top Music Videos", number one on Rolling Stone magazine's "The 30 Sexiest Music Videos of All Time", and number one on Fuse's "40 Sexiest Videos" in 2010.
Another video was commissioned for the Wild at Heart VHS release and was directed by David Lynch. It features scenes of Lula Pace Fortune (Laura Dern) and Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage) from the film, interspersed with black-and-white footage of Isaak and his band performing the song. This video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Video from a Film.