Heart Shaped World (Chris Isaak album)

Heart Shaped World
Studio album by Chris Isaak
Released June 1989
Recorded 1988
Genre Rock and roll, rockabilly, roots rock
Length 45:45
Label Reprise
Producer Erik Jacobsen
Chris Isaak chronology
Chris Isaak
(1987)Chris Isaak1987		 Heart Shaped World
(1989)		 San Francisco Days
(1993)San Francisco Days1993

Heart Shaped World is the third album by Chris Isaak. Released in 1989, it became his breakthrough album and featured the Top 10 hit "Wicked Game". The album was certified 3x Platinum by the RIAA and has to date sold about 2.6 million copies in the United States according to Nielsen Soundscan.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
Sputnik Music[2]

When Heart Shaped World was released in the summer of 1989, it was on Billboard's pop 200 album chart for ten weeks, peaking at number 149; but in October 1990, after Lee Chesnut, music director of WAPW in Atlanta, played the song "Wicked Game" repeatedly over two weeks after hearing an instrumental version on the soundtrack from the 1990 David Lynch film Wild at Heart. "Wicked Game" was released as a single, the album reached the U.S. Top 10 peaking at number 7 on the Billboard chart, garnering sales of more than 500,000 copies.[3] The video for the single, filmed in black and white, featured a topless Helena Christensen and a shirtless Isaak in the surf and on the beach. It was shown in heavy rotation on MTV.

In March 1991, Entertainment Weekly described the scene at the sold-out start of his post-"Wicked Game" release tour:[4]

Reprise staged a gaudy, sold-out gig at L.A.'s Wiltern Theater. Sean Penn was there. So were Eric Roberts, k.d. lang, Dwight Yoakam, and, standing discreetly in a side aisle, Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa. There were lots of young girls, whose screaming Isaak may have to get used to. Afterward came The Hollywood Party, where, amid more dazzling stars, Isaak (decked out in his shiny brocade stage suit) got his first gold record while the waiters passed around goat cheese quesadillas and a Hawaiian band played in the background. It was a lot to handle, but then, as Isaak had said the night before..., "I used to tar-paper roofs for a living. So, as far as I'm concerned, this is a pretty fun job."

At the first of a May 1991 two-night stand at the Beacon Theatre in New York City—the first in that city after "Wicked Game" became a top 10 hit— Isaak's performance was characterized as "consummate showmanship": performances "right on the edge of caricature" yet with the ability to "infuse the ballads "Wicked Game" and "Blue Spanish Sky" ... with a spine-tingling intensity."[5]

Track listing

All tracks written by Chris Isaak except where noted.

No.TitleLength
1."Heart Shaped World"3:26
2."I'm Not Waiting"3:15
3."Don't Make Me Dream About You"3:30
4."Kings of the Highway"4:44
5."Wicked Game"4:46
6."Blue Spanish Sky"3:57
7."Wrong to Love You"4:17
8."Forever Young"3:20
9."Nothing's Changed"4:05
10."In the Heat of the Jungle"6:20
11."Diddley Daddy" (CD bonus track; writers: Bo Diddley, Harvey Fuqua)4:05

Personnel

Adapted from Discogs.[6]

Musicians

Additional Personnel

Production

References

  1. ↑ Heart Shaped World at AllMusic
  2. ↑ "Chris Isaak: Heart Shaped World". Sputnik Music. sputnikmusic.com. December 17, 2010. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  3. ↑ Stephen Holden (April 17, 1991). "The Pop Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
  4. ↑ Joe Rhodes (March 8, 1991). "On Top of His Game". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
  5. ↑ Stephen Holden (May 19, 1991). "Chris Isaak In a Display Of Inspired Silliness". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
  6. ↑ Additional Personnel as listed at discogs; retrieved November 28, 2011
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