Chris Isaak

Chris Isaak (2003)

Christopher Joseph Isaak (born June 26, 1956 in Stockton , California ) is an American singer and film actor .

Live and act

In 1981 Chris Isaak formed the band Silvertone with James Calvin Wilsey (guitar), Kenney Dale Johnson (drums), and Rowland Salley (bass) . In 1985 he released his first solo album, Silvertone . He made his German debut on October 28, 1985 at Uncle Pö in Hamburg.

His best-known title is the love song Wicked Game , composed in 1989 , which initially went unnoticed after its publication. It was only through the use of the instrumental version in a key scene from David Lynch's film Wild at Heart that the title gained popularity and achieved top 10 positions in the British, American and German charts in late 1990 and early 1991, among others. The black and white clip with the Danish model Helena Christensen also contributed to the success .

With the re-released song Blue Hotel (this was originally from 1986) Isaak had another top 20 hit in the spring of 1991.

The singer has also appeared as an actor, including in films such as Little Buddha , The Silence of the Lambs and The Mafiosi Bride . In the United States he appeared in his own television series The Chris Isaak Show from 2001 to March 2004 . The series showed the fictional everyday life of the rock musician.

In 2009 he hosted the show The Chris Isaak Hour , which was also broadcast by the German " The Biography Channel ". Isaak welcomed a new music star in each episode (such as Yusuf Islam or the Smashing Pumpkins ) to make music with him live in the studio and to talk to him. There were eight editions in total.

In 2015 he was one of the judges for the 7th season of the Australian TV casting show The X Factor .

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1986	Chris Isaak	-	-	-	-	US194 (2 weeks) US
1989	Heart Shaped World	-	-	-	-	US7th × 2 Double platinum (74 weeks)US
1991	Wicked game	DE3 gold (28 weeks)DE	AT6 (12 weeks) AT	CH4th gold (15 weeks)CH	UK3 × 2 Double platinum (32 weeks)UK	-	Best of album
1993	San Francisco Days	DE46 (9 weeks) DE	AT31 (4 weeks) AT	CH26 (4 weeks) CH	UK12 silver (5 weeks)UK	US35 gold (24 weeks)US
1995	Forever Blue	DE55 (8 weeks) DE	-	CH40 (3 weeks) CH	UK27 (3 weeks) UK	US31 platinum (41 weeks)US
1996	Baja sessions	-	-	-	UK100 (1 week) UK	US33 gold (17 weeks)US
1998	Speak of the Devil	DE99 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	US41 (9 weeks) US
2002	Always Got Tonight	DE61 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	-	US24 (12 weeks) US
2004	Christmas	-	-	-	-	US109 (3 weeks) US
2006	Best of Chris Isaak	DE44 (3 weeks) DE	-	CH86 (2 weeks) CH	UK65 (1 week) UK	US54 (13 weeks) US	Best of album
2009	Mr. Lucky	-	-	CH62 (1 week) CH	-	US29 (4 weeks) US
2011	Beyond the Sun	-	-	CH89 (1 week) CH	UK6th silver (10 weeks)UK	US34 (2 weeks) US
2015	First comes the night	-	-	-	UK32 (3 weeks) UK	US66 (1 week) US

More albums

• Silvertone (1985)
• Live in Australia (2008)
• Live at the Fillmore (2010)
• Beyond the Sun - Live (DVD / Blu-Ray, 2012)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1987	Blue Hotel Chris Isaak	-	-	-	UK100 (1 week) UK	-
1990	Wicked Game Wicked Game	DE9 (19 weeks) DE	-	-	UK10 gold (13 weeks)UK	US6th gold (24 weeks)US
1991	Blue Hotel Chris Isaak	DE19 (18 weeks) DE	AT4 (12 weeks) AT	-	UK17 (7 weeks) UK	-
	Dancin ' Wicked Game (1985)	-	-	-	UK100 (1 week) UK	-
1993	Can't Do a Thing (to Stop Me) San Francisco Days	-	-	-	UK36 (3 weeks) UK	-
	San Francisco Days San Francisco Days	-	-	-	UK62 (1 week) UK	-
1995	Somebody's Crying Forever Blue	DE76 (10 weeks) DE	-	-	UK81 (1 week) UK	US45 (20 weeks) US
1998	Please speak of the devil	-	-	-	UK76 (1 week) UK	-
1999	Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing Forever Blue	-	-	-	UK44 (2 weeks) UK	-

More singles

• Gone Ridin ' (1985)
• Livin 'for Your Lover (1986)
• You Owe Me Some Kind of Love (1987)
• Lie to Me (1987)
• Heart Full of Soul (1987)
• Don't Make Me Dream About You (1989)
• Blue Spanish Sky (1991)
• Solitary Man (1993)
• Two Hearts (1993)
• Dark Moon (1993)
• Go Walking down There (1995)
• Graduation Day (1996)
• Think of Tomorrow (1996)
• Flying (1998)
• Let Me Down Easy (2002)
• One Day (2002)
• Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (with Stevie Nicks , 2004)
• King Without a Castle (2006)
• Let's Have a Party (2006)
• I Want You to Want Me (2006)
• Blueberry Hill (Live, with Johnny Hallyday , 2007)
• We Let Her Down (2009)
• You Don't Cry Like I Do (2009)
• Breaking Apart (with Trisha Yearwood , 2009)
• Live It Up (2011)

Awards for music sales

Golden record

•  Canada
  • 1993: for the album San Francisco Days
  • 1995: for the album Forever Blue
•  Spain
  • 1999: for the album Chris Isaak

Platinum record

•  Canada
  • 1991: for the album Heart Shaped World
•  Finland
  • 1991: for the album Wicked Game
•  Netherlands
  • 1993: for the album Wicked Game
•  Spain
  • 1999: for the album Wicked Game

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Germany (BVMI)	-	gold1	-	250,000	musikindustrie.de
Finland (IFPI)	-	-	platinum1	59,682	ifpi.fi
Canada (MC)	-	2 × gold2	platinum1	200,000	musiccanada.com
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	-	platinum1	100,000	nvpi.nl
Switzerland (IFPI)	-	gold1	-	25,000	hitparade.ch
Spain (Promusicae)	-	gold1	platinum1	150,000	Sólo éxitos: año año, 1959-2002
United States (RIAA)	-	3 × gold3	3 × platinum3	4,500,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	2 × silver2	-	2 × platinum2	920,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	2 × silver2	8 × gold8th	9 × platinum9

Picture gallery

• 

  1986, Berkeley Square in Berkeley

• 

  1988, Cannery in San Francisco

• 

  2006, Pompano Beach Amphitheater

Filmography (selection)

• 1988: The Mafiosi Bride (Married to the Mob)
• 1991: The Silence of the Lambs (The Silence of the Lambs)
• 1992: Twin Peaks : Fire Walk with Me
• 1993: Little Buddha
• 1996: Grace of My Heart
• 1996: Friends (TV series, episode 2x12)
• 1996: That Thing You Do!
• 1999: Blue Ridge Fall
• 2001–2004: The Chris Issak Show (47 episodes)
• 2004: A Dirty Shame
• 2008: The Informers
• 2009: American Dad (1 episode)
• 2011: The Cleveland Show (2 episodes)
• 2014: Twin Peaks

swell

1. ↑ The Chris Isaak Hour , Internet Movie Database , accessed July 14, 2019.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US

Web links

• Chris Isaak in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Official website of Chris Isaak (English)