'Eyes' exposes Chris Isaak

Billboard
June 3, 1999
By Jim Bessman

Stanley Kubrick's forthcoming final film, "Eyes Wide Shut," is already giving Chris Isaak's career a boost, thanks to a catalog album track that the late director selected for the erotic thriller's soundtrack.

The Warner Sunset/Reprise soundtrack album bows July 13.

The song, "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing," originally appeared on Isaak's 1995 Reprise album, "Forever Blue." It is currently being heard in TV promos for the movie, accompanying steamy footage of its stars, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. The trailer has prompted numerous radio stations to dust off the original, which has been remixed by Reprise senior vice president of talent David Kahne.

"Along with a lot of others, we took note of the song's inclusion on the trailer when it was first broadcast," says Dave Benson, program director of Denver adult rock station KBCO and sister Los Angeles stations KACD and KBCD. "So we put it in rotation and are now waiting along with everybody else to see if the movie's impact can put another Chris Isaak movie song on the charts."

Isaak had hit big with "Wicked Game" from the soundtrack to David Lynch's 1990 film "Wild at Heart." His songs have also been placed in Lynch's "Blue Velvet" and Clint Eastwood's "A Perfect World."

"I always thought 'Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing' was a good song for a film," says Isaak, "because it's kind of a strange piece of work, with a really driving beat and a manic energy that I thought would probably work well for some visuals."

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