The lyrics are steeped in a dark romanticism and the reverb and delay of the guitar make the listener feel unmoored from reality. The bleak look back at this relationship has an almost Gothic feel to it.

An entire generation was captivated by the sexiness of the both the image and the song itself. It took two separate events to cement it as a classic: It was included in David Lynch‘s film Wild at Heart, and a second video (the first was directed by David Lynch for the Wild at Heart soundtrack) featuring the now-legendary black-and-white image of Helena Christensen rolling topless in the sands of Hawaii. The song was originally not all that popular as a single. The song seemed more like a dream than anything else a fevered hallucination, showing up unbidden in Isaak’s mind as some love he had no business having in the first place circles around and around. Released as a single in 1990, the track floated on its own hazy eddy, separate from the currents of both the ’80s that preceded it and the grunge sound of the early ’90s that came soon after.

Chris Isaak‘s “Wicked Game” is one of those songs that seems to exist on their own plane of music.

Wild at heart wicked game