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. But Isaak's brooding, sorrowfully conflicted reading of the song is the real focus, and the reason it delivers emotional weight behind all the atmosphere." Wicked Game" is a song by American rock musician Chris Isaak, released from his third album, Heart Shaped World (1989). The tremolo bar also adds a shaky shimmer to the electric guitar's background chords during some of the verses, underlining its crucial importance to the song's overall effect. Spare, ringing electric arpeggios hang in the air over a gently strummed acoustic guitar and whisper-quiet brushwork on a snare drum.
In spite of its simplicity, the result is quite evocative - it's ethereal, even ghostly, and feels like the sonic equivalent of a brief but queasy zero-G drop in the pit of one's stomach, sliding just a little bit farther down than the ear expects before resolving onto stable ground. The song's opening hook is based on the use of the tremolo bar on a clean-toned electric guitar, swooping into a downward dive and then rising back up on a completely different note. His voice can drop into a hushed baritone or - as on the chorus - break into a quavering, sobbing falsetto that floats over the music like misty night air. It's a moody, quietly intense ballad full of heavy, shimmering atmospherics and smoky crooning from Isaak. While "Wicked Game" didn't sound like much else on Top 40 radio at the time, it's not hard to see why the song became a hit once people had a chance to hear it. The success of "Wicked Game" sent Heart Shaped World, the 1989 album on which the song had originally been released, back onto the charts, where it also reached the Top Ten on its way to sales of over two million copies. "Wicked Game" became a surprise Top Ten hit for early rock revivalist Chris Isaak in 1990, following its appearance on the soundtrack of the David Lynch film Wild at Heart.
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