WATCH: Tenacious D Cover Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”

Chris Isaak’s slow-dissolve sex jam “Wicked Game” is a full-on modern standard, a song that everybody and their mother has already covered. The song might be the ultimate blank canvas, the track that allows just about any musician to project just about anything onto it.

Tenacious D, the duo of Jack Black and Kyle Gass, have been doing some high-profile cover work lately: The Who, Seals & Crofts, “Time Warp.” In a SiriusXM session over the weekend, the D took on Chris Isaak, their fellow actor/musician. Tenacious D have covered “Wicked Game” live, but when they play it for the cameras, you can truly luxuriate in the splendor of their acoustic guitar work and Jack Black’s burly/buttery vocals. Black doesn’t go for the full falsetto on the “Wicked Game” high note, but he commits, and the cover doesn’t feel like a joke.

This article was first published on stereogum.com by Tom Breihan