Chris Isaak – Wicked Game

When I first heard this song…I thought this song was very different. It’s almost like its origin was in a dream. I can imagine this song being a soundtrack to a fever dream easily. It’s that guitar with its sliding and bending notes. The guitar player was James Calvin Wilsey who played that haunted-sounding lead.

I remember hearing Isaak before this hit from a friend who had his Silvertone album. I really liked a song called Gone Ridin’. It was rockabilly with a modern twist. I talked to my friend recently and we talked about Isaak. He agreed with me that we never saw the success of Wicked Game coming.

Most of the time, songs that go out on a limb and are different are not heard as much. My blog is full of those songs but this one actually reached the masses. Along with that guitar is Isaak’s haunting but strong voice. He wrote it one night when a troubled lady was coming over to his house (see quote at bottom).

The song peaked at #6 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada, #7 in New Zealand, and #10 in the UK. It also reached #2 on the Billboard Alternative Charts in 1990. The song was on the 1989 album Heart Shaped World.

When the song was placed in a movie it took off. An instrumental version was used in the David Lynch film called Wild At Heart in 1990. That certainly helped the song as well. I’m a huge David Lynch fan and Chris had this to say about him. “I enjoy talking about David Lynch because he’s such a great guy. The question I get about him is, ‘How is David Lynch? Is he scary or spooky or something?’ I don’t think it’s ever guys who make films like David makes or who have that kind of weird bent in their artwork–those guys are probably the nicest guys in real life because they’ve expressed all of their weird angles. The guys you have to watch are the guys who go, ‘I’m a scout master, the proud father of two children, and I’m also a deacon in the church.’ Then you go, ‘Be careful.’ If he’s out in the back yard at night with a shovel, be careful because he’s burying something.”

Chris Isaak: “This one I wrote really late at night and it was written in a short time, because I remember that a girl had called me and said, ‘I want to come over and talk to you,’ and ‘talk’ was a euphemism. And she said, ‘I want to come over and talk to you until you’re no longer able to stand up.’ And I said, ‘Okay, you’re coming over.’ And as soon as I hung up I thought, ‘Oh, my God. I know she’s gonna 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.’ And I wrote ‘Wicked Game’: ‘world’s on fire and no one can save me but you.’ It’s like you start thinking about it, and by the time she came over to the house, I had the song written. And I think she was probably upset because I was more excited by the song. (Laughing) I was like, ‘Yes, you’re gorgeous, baby. But listen to this song!'”

Chris Isaak:  “I think that sometimes you get easy ones that come very quick and you’re really glad – you go, ‘Wow, where’d this come from?’ It’s so fast to write. And then there’s other songs that you do and it’s like doing your homework. It’s like you really are working and biting the pencil and working on that third verse. Most of the time you do work. But sometimes you get lucky.”

Wicked Game

The world was on fire and no one could save me but youIt’s strange what desire will make foolish people doI never dreamed that I’d meet somebody like youAnd I never dreamed that I’d lose somebody like you

No, I don’t wanna fall in love (this world is only gonna break your heart)No, I don’t wanna fall in love (this world is only gonna break your heart)With youWith you(This world is only gonna break your heart)

What a wicked game you play, to make me feel this wayWhat a wicked thing to do, to let me dream of youWhat a wicked thing to say, you never felt this wayWhat a wicked thing to do, to make me dream of you

And I don’t wanna fall in love (this world is only gonna break your heart)No, I don’t wanna fall in love (this world is only gonna break your heart)With you

The world was on fire and no one could save me but youStrange what desire will make foolish people doI never dreamed that I’d love somebody like youAnd I never dreamed that I’d lose somebody like you

No, I don’t wanna fall in love (this world is only gonna break your heart)No, I don’t wanna fall in love (this world is only gonna break your heart)With you (this world is only gonna break your heart)With you (with you)(This world is only gonna break your heart)

No, I (this world is only gonna break your heart)(This world is only gonna break your heart)

Nobody loves no one

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

69 thoughts on “Chris Isaak – Wicked Game”

  4. It’s a very sultry song and that guitar sound is something else as you alluded. I always enjoyed listening to it and it was interesting to read Issak’s comments about the night he wrote it. Also that David Lynch film Wild At Heart is very trippy. I would like to see it again. Good song selection here Max. Cheers.

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      2. Eraserhead…is a movie that I need to see again…it’s out there…really out there. I’m doing a review on one of his movies in a few weeks called Rabbits.

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  6. Saw him at a small nightclub on Broadway in the North Beach section of San Francisco in ’88. His band were all woman in bikini’s…probably not ‘politically correct’ today but, this was right before he hit it big in ’89 with his next album. Great blues/surfer sound guitar man. Those were the days!

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  7. David Lynch’s biggest single contribution to entertainment!? What a great song that sounded nothing like anything on radio back then …sultry is a good term as Observationblogger wrote. I got that album & ‘San Francisco Days’, which I think was his follow-up, and liked both but this was probably still the show-stopper from either. I always assumed he was playing the guitar though.

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    1. I don’t know….Lynch has had some great movies…odd and off the wall but I really like them…but this song Dave…fit him so well…and the movie.
      I still can’t believe this song hit…I’m glad it did.

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      1. Wow, song sure got conversations going here! I never saw that movie, but I did see ‘Blue Velvet’ back then & thought it was not bad but pretty weird. One under the radar one he made that I liked was ‘The Straight Story’ based on a real story of an old guy going to visit his estranged brother cross state…on a lawn mower! I liked it.
        The song seemed to have that ‘something’ that would make it a major hit so I was right…BUT I thought that about a lot that never hit the top 40 either so my skill at that isn’t so good

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      2. Oh his movies are very weird…but I like that sometimes… not a mainstream guy whatsoever lol.
        Usually songs like that don’t make the top 40…it’s so dream sounding

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    1. I remember that first album from a friend…I need to listen to more. I was also facsinated by the Lynch connection…perfect for this song.

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  13. Have always loved this song, and it’s ironic you wrote about Isaak shortly after Joe Cocker, in that I saw him open for Tina Turner in 1993. It was one of the best live shows I’ve seen in my long life, and both Turner and Isaak were spectacular.

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  14. I bought, “Heart Shaped World” after hearing the song in, “Wild at Heart.” Good to hear the origin story of the song. “Wicked Game” is his best-known song to date, but like you said, he was making good music before this tune. Here’s another great tune from that album in the rockabilly style:

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    2. Oh I love that! He was part rockabilly part something else…an original for sure. This song for Lynch was a perfect marriage…I really like Lynch a lot.

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      1. Me too, Max. Just don’t ask me to watch Eraserhead again. Once was enough. I love the rest of them and Wild at Heart is probably my favorite. Blue Velvet a close 2nd because it shows right from the beginning that on the surface so many things seem just peachy, but…

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      2. I’m doing a review on “Rabbits” soon…probably the most confusing Lynch movie I’ve ever seen….and that is saying a lot!

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      4. No…it’s from 2002 I believe…it was a series of short films…equaling to around 45 minutes…unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

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  22. I absolutely adore Wicked Game and have done since I first heard it. Stupidly, I had an album of his and didn’t keep it. Just shows what an idiot I can be sometimes. I keep meaning to buy it again. However, the video that goes along with it is, to my mind, too ‘glossy’ and artificial to do the song justice.

    I was surprised when I saw a live video of him (actually a live studio session, I think) on YouTube that he wasn’t playing the main guitar part and found it a bit disappointing, but he seems to be a good guitarist anyway. Also I thought his guitar (Isaak’s) was a Gretch, but it seems it’s a Gibson copy of a Gretsch (I can’t spell it today, sorry. And I have an acoustic Gretch myself!)

    There’s one other song I love as much as this, but totally different and by someone else. Unless I’ve missed it, I don’t think you’ve done a post on it, have you? I’m talking about Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty. I’d have thought with your Beatles addiction it might interest you for the ‘location’ alone – Baker Street in London was where Apple Boutique was located. 🙂

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    1. Oh yea I love Baker Street…I always thought it was probably one of the best singles of the seventies.
      The strange sound of this one always drew me in. That guitar really makes this one….separates it from other songs.

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