CHRIS ISAAK

Born: Stockton, California, 26 June 1956

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Forever Blue (1995)

Hit songs since 1990: "Wicked Game," "Somebody's Crying," "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing"

Athrowback inspired by 1950s rock, country, and rockabilly, Chris Isaak became a distinctive and enduring male solo artist in the 1990s while also carving a career in film and television. The son of a forklift operator, Isaak received his first guitar at the age of fifteen. Isaak and his brother Nick performed frequently for their parents, specializing in country ballads as well as the classic tunes of 1950s crooner Roy Orbison. Isaak attended the University of the Pacific and held down a variety of jobs, including movie-studio tour guide, film extra, and boxer, which left him with his noticeably flattened nose.

In college Isaak became enthralled by Sun Sessions (1976), the seminal collection of Elvis Presley's 1954 and 1955 recordings. He relocated to San Francisco and formed his first band, a rockabilly outfit named the Silvertones. At this stage Isaak, a struggling artist, began wearing retro country-and-western outfits, courtesy of his local thrift store.

Isaak attracted the attention of Warner Bros. Records, which signed the young singer to a recording contract in 1985 and released his debut album, Silvertone, that same year, and its follow-up, Chris Isaak (1986). Both albums invoked a variety of time-honored sounds, from country blues to more modern R&B, but neither album thrived commercially.

In 1989 Isaak released his third album, Heart-Shaped World. Like its predecessors, the album was initially a commercial disappointment. The following year the director David Lynch used an instrumental version of the haunting track "Wicked Game" in his movie Wild at Heart (1990). An Atlanta DJ sought out the full track and started a radio frenzy that sent the song to number six on the Billboard charts in 1991. "Wicked Game" was one of the more unusual radio hits of the 1990s. A sparse ballad with moody country guitars, it features Isaak sexily drawling lines such as "The world was on fire, and no one could save me but you / It's strange what desire will make foolish people do," reaching a crescendo on the chorus with the falsetto-delivered, "No, I don't want to fall in love."

Isaak's unique features, especially his flat nose and greased-up, rockabilly haircut, attracted the attention of Hollywood, which gave him bit parts in movies such as The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). Isaak also scored a leading role in Little Buddha (1993).

In 1993 Isaak released San Francisco Days, which featured the minor hit "Can't Do a Thing (To Stop Me)." The follow-up album, Forever Blue (1995), was Isaak's most popular of the decade, selling 1 million copies. A concept album centered on his breakup with a longtime girlfriend, Forever Blue runs the gamut of emotions, from extreme melancholy to raw anger. The album features the wistful hit "Somebody's Crying," with its simple plea: "Please, return the love you took from me." Forever Blue also features a dark boogie-rocker entitled "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing." "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing" presents Isaak at his most emotionally raw; over a snakelike guitar, a tense Isaak seethes with anger at his former lover: "You ever toss and turn your lying awake and thinking about the one you love?/ I don't think so." "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing" enjoyed a second life when the director Stanley Kubrick featured the song in his 1999 movie Eyes Wide Shut.

Isaak's subsequent albums, Baja Sessions (1996) and Speak of the Devil (1996), each sold more than 500,000 copies, further establishing Isaak as a commercially viable artist. Isaak continued to delve into acting on the side, scoring roles in the movies Grace of My Heart (1996) and That Thing You Do! (1996) as well as the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon (1998). In 2001 the Showtime cable network launched The Chris Isaak Show, an irreverent comedy series about the life of a rock star; the show gave him the opportunity to act and perform musically. In 2002 Isaak released Always Got Tonight, his eighth studio album, which features the minor hit "Let Me Down Easy." During the 1990s Chris Isaak carved a unique niche in pop culture, parlaying his affection for the 1950s into a distinctive style that led to multimedia celebrity.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Silvertone (Warner, 1985); Chris Isaak (Warner, 1986); Heart-Shaped World (Reprise, 1989); San Francisco Days (Reprise, 1993); Forever Blue (Reprise, 1995); Baja Sessions (Reprise, 1996); Speak of the Devil (Reprise, 1998); Always Got Tonight (Reprise, 2002).

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