Does TV Sell Records? Ask Chris Isaak

Music stars looking for television appearances to promote songs take note: Chris Isaak, whose album hits the charts this week, has discovered a foolproof way to guarantee air time. The singer has the rare luxury of his own Showtime comedy series, aptly named “The Chris Isaak Show,” and it’s become a quirky favorite of critics. But will it help his music career?

Liz Rosenberg, senior vice president of publicity at Warner Bros. Records, has worked with Isaak for more than a decade and says the show has given the singer his highest degree of celebrity. But she also said it’s hard to predict whether a nonmusical spotlight will help every artist light it up at record stores. Rosenberg pointed to the example of one of Warner’s biggest stars, Madonna, who had a controversial film, book and album in 1993. “We were all thrilled with the cross-promotion but, you know what, everything suffered.... Sometimes things don’t work out the way you think.”

There’s also the concern that a secondary career might undermine or overwhelm a music star who might otherwise be touring or promoting the music. Rosenberg, though, says Isaak’s percolating pop culture status and devotion to his music should poise the new album, “Always Got Tonight,” for a bigger debut performance than his last release, which sold 30,000 copies its first week. An interesting wrinkle, she says, is that the majority of the show’s viewers are men while the majority of Isaak’s music fans are female, a fact that his camp hopes is a strength, not a weakness.

Retailers say the small-screen life can only help Isaak at the record rack. “What the show does is differentiate him from all the other singers out there, and that alone is a big deal,” says Scott Levin, director of music marketing for the Musicland chain of stores. “There’s definitely a benefit, but how the album fares on the radio will have a bigger impact.”

Compiled by Times staff writers