Vintage-inspired singer/songwriter Chris Isaak has periodically attempted to update his '50s and '60s-influenced sound. Albums like 2002's Always Got Tonight and 2009's Mr. Lucky found the California native incorporating funk grooves, modern rock guitars, and the occasional synthesizer. Despite these moves toward contemporizing his pompadour-accented approach however, Isaak's best work, even on those albums, is always on the tracks where he embraces his old-school aesthetics and delivers melodic, twangy songs in his signature goosebump-inducing croon. This is the approach Isaak takes on his 13th studio album, 2015's First Comes the Night.

When filmmaker David Lynch backed a disquieting scene in Blue Velvet with Roy Orbison's "In Dreams," he demonstrated the eerie atmosphere behind its pre-'60s innocence. Orbison disciple Chris Isaak played those qualities to the hilt in his shimmering, spare "Wicked Game," so it was no surprise when Lynch included the ballad in Wild at Heart. What was surprising, given the fact that it sounded like nothing else on pop radio in 1990, was that "Wicked Game" became a breakout Top Ten hit, pushing Isaak's accompanying album Heart Shaped World to platinum status. Of course, there's more than that one moody masterpiece of a single to recommend Heart Shaped World.

Some albums are so obvious it’s a wonder they didn’t exist before, and so it is with Chris Isaak's Beyond the Sun, a salute to the classic rock & roll label Sun Records. Ever since his first album, Isaak has exhibited an enormous debt to the titans who recorded at Sun, particularly Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley, whose work is showcased heavily here. Isaak doesn’t stick strictly to songs released on Sun – he covers “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” which Presley did not release during his time on Sun – but he doesn’t stick to the obvious, either, finding excellent songs from the likes of Warren Smith. Still, Elvis rules the roost, not only in terms of songs covered, but in approach.

"Chris Isaak - along with his special guests Michael Bublé, Brian McKnight and Stevie Nicks - invite you to a very special Christmas celebration. Join Chris as he leads his long-time band through yuletide favorites including "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)" and "White Christmas" as well as five of his own holiday originals ("Washington Square", "Gotta Be Good", "Hey Santa!", "Brightest Star"" and "Christmas on TV").

Stanley Kubrick made his own musical choices for his films, many of them existing pieces that were forever redefined by their use. (Remember "Thus Spake Zarathustra" in 2001: A Space Odyssey?) For his final work, Eyes Wide Shut, he employed composer Jocelyn Pook to compose some evocative string-filled music (including one track, "Masked Ball," eerily featuring backwards vocals), but his score also included works by Liszt and Shostakovich, syrupy versions of "When I Fall in Love," "If I Had You," and "Strangers in the Night," a jazzy rendition of "Blame It on My Youth" by Brad Mehldau, Chris Isaak's cross between John Lee Hooker and Roy Orbison on his 1995 song "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing," and, opening and closing the disc, a simple but intense solo piano piece by Gyogy Ligeti, whose work also had been used in 2001 and another Kubrick film, The Shining. The result was an eclectic soundtrack album that primarily was of interest to fans of the film who were in need of an aural souvenir.