"Wicked Game" is a song by American rock musician Chris Isaak, released from his third album, Heart Shaped World (1989). Despite being released as a single in July 1989, it did not become a hit until it was featured in the 1990 David Lynch film Wild at Heart, starring Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern. Lee Chesnut, an Atlanta radio station music director who loved David Lynch films, began playing the song, and it quickly became an American top-10 hit in January 1991, reaching number six on the Billboard Hot 100. Worldwide, the single became a number-one hit in Belgium and reached the top 10 in several other nations.
"Wicked Game" has been covered by many other artists and been featured in numerous movies and television series and advertisements, so much so that Dazed magazine questioned whether it might be the most influential love song in modern music. It has subsequently received retrospective critical acclaim, being listed in the 2010 book 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die, and noted by Dave Marsh in an updated edition of his 1989 book The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made.
Composition
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, Isaak has said that the song was inspired by a telephone call from a woman seeking 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, 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 vibrato arm; both the bassline and drums were sampled from previous recordings of the song and looped.
Critical reception
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 called 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 that 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."
Music videos
There are two different music videos for this song. The more well-known video was directed by Herb Ritts and shot in Hawaii at what was formerly known as 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, winning the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Male Video and Best Cinematography. It was ranked number 13 on VH1's "100 Greatest Videos", 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.