“Wicked Game” is a song by American rock musician Chris Isaak, released from his third studio album Heart Shaped World (1989). Despite being released as a single in 1989, it did not become a hit until it was featured in the 1990 David Lynch film Wild at Heart. Lee Chesnut, an Atlanta radio station music director who loved David Lynch films, began playing the song, and it quickly became an American top-ten hit in January 1991, reaching number six on the Billboard, making it the first hit song of Isaak’s career. Additionally, the single became a number-one hit in Belgium and reached the top 10 in several other nations.
The song is in the key of B Dorian mode 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 casual sexual liaison and is about “what happens when you have a strong attraction to people that aren’t necessarily good for you”. It was written in short order following 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 came up with the distinctive guitar lead; both the bassline and drums (except the cymbals) were sampled from previous recordings of the song and then looped.
Emika, a classically trained musician who studied classical piano and composition, grew up in Milton Keynes, England. She started to make music at school (using an old sequencer program she found on a computer stashed in a cupboard) and waitressed to save up for her first AppleMac and copy of Logic Studio. Her music has been used in adverts by Gucci, McLaren and NBC – who used her cover of Wicked Game in an episode of The Blacklist, which led to the track reaching No. 1 on iTunes in Canada and No. 2 in the US.
Singer and songwriter Gemma Hayes recorded a version of the song. In February 2012 Hayes revealed in an interview with Evening Echo’s ‘Downtown’, she recorded a cover version of Wicked Game” for US Teen drama Pretty Little Liars, the song featured throughout her 2012 tour playlist. Her cover of “Wicked Game” appeared on Pretty Little Liars on 12 March 2012 and was then available to download as a single. In March 2015, a video musical session was recorded playing this song at St. Patrick’s Chapel – Irish Cultural Center, Paris.
In 2013, German house producer Parra for Cuva released a cover version that featured Anna Naklab. The single was re-titled as “Wicked Games” in plural. It was first released on Beatport worldwide as a digital download in August 2013, then a mainstream release as a digital download in France in October 2013 and in Germany on 14 February 2014. The song has charted in Australia, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
It would be impossible for me to post about this song without reference to the most excellent version performed by my friend Rachel Croft. There is such a purity and power in her voice that brings you straight to the emotional heart of the song. She would often play it for us on a Sunday night at Pairings Wine Bar in York.
