The way Chris Isaak explains it, “Wicked Game” happened quickly and unexpectedly.
“A
girl called me and said, ‘I want to come over and talk to you,’ and
‘talk’ was a euphemism,” Isaak told longtime music journalist Dan
MacIntosh. “And she said, ‘I want to come over and talk to you until
you’re no longer able to stand up.’ I said, OK.’”
As soon as the
singer-songwriter hung up the phone, he froze. “I thought, ‘I know she’s
going to be trouble. She’s always been trouble. She’s a wildcat. And
here I am, I’m going to get killed, but I’m doing this.’” The first line
of the mega-hit materialized: “World’s on fire and no one can save me
but you/ It’s strange what desire will make foolish people do.”
By
the time the sexy beast arrived, Isaak had the song written. “I think
she was upset because I was more excited by the song,” he said.
“Wicked
Game” reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990, which was – and
still is – the biggest hit of Isaak’s career. The combination of his
haunting Roy Orbison-quality yodels, cool reverberated guitar and story
of dangerous romance yields some steamy imagery.
But “Wicked Game”
didn’t initially turn heads. In fact, the song wasn’t even originally
released the year it charted so high; it appeared on Isaak’s third
record,
Heart Shaped World, nearly two years earlier. The song began gaining notoriety after filmmaker David Lynch used it in his 1990 masterpiece
Wild at Heart starring Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern
. More
attention followed with Herb Ritts’ black-and-white music video,
featuring Isaak and model Helena Christensen rolling around near-nude on
a beach like a Calvin Klein commercial on steroids.
In the 25 years since, “Wicked Game” has taken on a life of its own, growing into a global pop-culture phenomenon.
Overwhelming
evidence to that end begins with the more-than-two-dozen documented
variations of the tune recorded by a variety of different artists. The
strangest of the bunch includes a Gregorian chant-inspired knock-off by
the the group Gregorian, and a 2004 dancey reimagining by the German
techno collective Novaspace. Isaak champions all the various
interpretations of his song, as long as one guideline is followed.
“They have fun and put themselves into the song,” he told
The song has surfaced in a slew of soaps –
Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless, One Life to Live and
General Hospital – and in the 2014 revival of
Streetcar Named Desire, starring Gillian Anderson. Saturday in Carmel, listeners will hear it live and in its original glory.
