The Yardbirds / Chris Isaak
by RICH ARITHMETIC
Editor’s Note: This is a somewhat revised version of a post originally published in the 1980’s Cassette Culture Blog on May 6, 2025
Cover versions are a tricky business. It can be fun to hear great songs reimagined by another artist. For example, how cool was it when Vanilla Fudge slowed down the Supremes Motown classic “You Keep Me Hanging On” and turned it into an acid-rock icon? But there’s danger, too — a misguided cover version can make a mockery of the band doing it and ruin a good song. Can anybody say “Oomah Chucka, Oomah Chucka” and think, boy!, there’s a good idea for a cover version?
Well, here’s a cover song I didn’t see coming at the time. And it turned into one of the best cover songs of the ’80s.
The Yardbirds‘ recording career wasn’t terribly prolific, but virtually everything they recorded with Jeff Beck playing lead guitar was a masterpiece. And, normally, it would be hard for me to classify any other version of a Beck-era Yardbirds’ single as better than the original. For example, here’s The Yardbirds’ original version of Heart Full Of Soul:
However . . .
In 1987 Chris Isaak slowed down the tempo of the song, and with Chris’s crooning baritone accompanied by the moody surf-influenced guitar of James Calvin Wilsey, their version of Heart Full Of Soul turned The Yardbirds’ classic into the soundtrack for a sultry modern neo-noir film.