A Bad, Bad Thing

Chris Isaak released his own greatest hits CD this week. Which is a shock in itself as does anyone really know more than two songs of his? Other than "Wicked Game" that came with that steamy video and "Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing" which was used in the teaser trailers for the Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut, did he really have any hit songs?

I always find artists who actually truly didn't have a lot of hits to have interesting greatest hits choices. Take a group like Night Ranger, they really had only one hit song Sister Christian. So when you look at their GH, the question is, is the most obvious song the first track? Is there more than one version of that obvious song? You know remix version, live version, updated version etc. How subtle are they going to try and be as they try to squeeze one last dollar out of it's remaining fans?

GH can also be rather bittersweet with artists you like who have had a lot of hits. Take Springsteen's GH from about 5 years ago. It missed great tracks like "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) but included songs that were actually hit singles but really aren't important to his fans like "My Hometown". Or Supertramp's first greatest hits compilation that didn't even include my personal fave "Even In The Quietest Moments"

The final issue is whether it is to be in chronological order or in a thematic order. In the 90s, Prince put out a two disc GH release that was in a rather bizarre order. Take for instance his rather dated R&B hit "Uptown" from 1980 is followed by the rock 'n roll bliss that is "Let's Go Crazy" which is then followed by the pure danciness of "1999". To the casual fan, it really would make the whole release difficult to listen to. However, take groups like The Pretenders or Bob Seger which really didn't change much throughout their career, it makes more sense for them to do it in more of thematic sense as opposed to worrying about chronology.

Getting back to Chris Isaak, I am still waiting for him to star in a film version of the Chet Baker story. I don't know if Chet Baker is deserving of a bio pic, but god knows no one looks more like him than Chris Isaak. Here is the trailer for Eyes Wide Shut with the Chris Isaak song.

Top 5 Stanley Kubrick films
1. A Clockwork Orange
2. Paths Of Glory
3. Dr. Strangelove
4. Full Metal Jacket
5. The Killing