During his 13-year association with The Wailers, singer Elan Atias worked with a diverse list of acts, from Gwen Stefani to Carlos Santana. For his latest project, he covers Wicked Game, American rock singer Chris Isaak’s breakthrough song.

His reggae version was released digitally last week.

Elan, as he is known professionally, said his decision to revisit the 1990 hit was spontaneous.

“I was in the studio with one of my producers, Thomas, and he played a reggae track that sounded like Chris Isaak’s

Wicked Game, so I decided to record a version of the song to that track,” Elan told the Jamaica Observer.

“I replaced the original song’s signature slide guitar sound with a saxophone doing the parts as I thought it fit better.”

The song is intended for his fourth solo album, scheduled for release in early 2017. The original paved the way for Isaak’s remarkable success as a retro act in the 1990s.

Elan, 40, grew up in Los Angeles. He discovered reggae in the mid-1980s when his older sister played Bob Marley’s 1976 album,

Rastaman Vibration, in their home.

In 1997, while an aspiring artiste, he met Wailers guitarist Al Anderson who first recorded with Marley on his 1974 Natty Dread album.

“I was in a club in Hollywood and met him. I asked him to work on four songs I was recording at that time. When they were done he took them and played them for (Wailers bassist) Aston ‘Familyman’ Barrett who said for me to join the band immediately as Junior Marvin had just left,” Elan recalled.

He toured the world with the legendary band for over a decade, which opened doors for him to work with Santana, Stefani, country star Kenny Chesney and rap icon Snoop Dogg.

“It is an honour working with these artistes. It has expanded the reach of my music into new audiences not touched before,” he said.

Together as One, Elan’s first album, was released in 2006. His previous, We Are, came out in 2011.

— Howard Campbell