“Wicked Game” is the infamous soft rock song from American rock musician Chris Isaak and his third studio album “Heart Shaped World”, released in 1989. The track was written by Isaak and was produced by Erik Jacobsen. However, the song only became popular when it was featured in a David Lynch film a year later: “Wild at Heart”.
“Wicked Games” is about loving someone who isn’t good for you, and Isaak has publicly stated where he got his inspiration for the song from: “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.’”
The music video for “Wicked Game” was directed by Herb Ritts and filmed in Hawaii, and featured supermodel Helena Christensen wearing little to nothing while playing on the beach, embracing one another and laughing. The entire video is shot in black and white and occasionally yellow hues. There is no official music video upload for the video (however, a YouTube user by the name of “Ani Shqepa” uploaded the video in August 2012, which now has 32.7 million views), but the audio upload on Chris Isaak’s YouTube channel has 26.1 million views.
Release Date: June 1989
Songwriter: Chris Isaak
Producer: Erik Jacobsen
Label: Reprise
Music Video Release Date: n/a
Music Video Director: Herb Ritts
Chart Rankings, Certifications & Accolades: Upon its release, “Wicked Game” failed to chart. However, thanks to the exposure of Lynch’s film, the track entered the charts in 1990, and charted at #15 in Australia, #1 in Belgium, #3 and #6 on various charts in Canada, #8 in Finland, #33 in France, #9 in Germany, #10 in Ireland, #5 in the Netherlands, #7 in New Zealand, #3 in Sweden, #10 in the UK, and #6, #2, #12 and #10 on different US Billboard charts. “Wicked Games” has received Gold certification in Denmark, Italy, the UK and the US. The song is featured the 2010 book “1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die”.
The lyrics to “Wicked Game” can be viewed here: LINK
Terry Johinke
April 26, 2021 at 11:35 am
Yeah. I think we’ve all had one who hasn’t made things right. Great song, easy to play, 3 Chords, Bm, A and E.
Kris is 5 days younger than me and I share his taste and grew up with the “crooners”- he’s good. Most of all, I’m Australian and he loves coming here ( hope that’s not an act) and he charms the female interviewers every time. It’s funnt.
Ethan
December 13, 2021 at 1:25 pm
my mom and dad got a divorce and it hurt my dad so bad and this is the song he listened to and i feel so bad.