Unrequited Love With Every CD

Lots of songwriters have told us how they pour their hearts into songs--almost as if writing letters to old lovers.

Chris Isaak has taken a more direct route.

In what is believed to be a pop first, Isaak pours his heart out in a letter to his ex-love and actually includes it prominently in the artwork for his upcoming “Forever Blue” album.

Marketing ploy or act of compulsion?

Isaak swears it’s the latter. The 200-word, hand-written note was one of dozens he wrote--but never mailed--to his girlfriend of three years after she left him shortly before he was scheduled to record the album late last year.

“On past albums I never even put lyrics on my albums, or anything that told anyone about it,” says the San Francisco-based singer. “This time, I thought, ‘You know, I really don’t care.’ I want there to be as much as possible. If this (letter) will explain a little bit where I was coming from, good. If someone else think’s it’s goofy, well go ahead.

“Until something like that happens to you where you have a relationship that doesn’t just end but it explodes, all this is just someone else’s story.”

In the note, he writes: “Do you still go to that Village place for breakfast? Still eating junk food and losing weight? . . . Do you sleep with somebody else now? How’s that? I tell myself not to think about that stuff but I do. I’m (messed) up.”

Isaak says he was so broken up after the split that he called his agent and asked to be booked for concerts “as far away from here as you can and as soon as you can.”

The result was a trek that took him to Hong Kong, Singapore and Jakarta. As soon as he got back he started the album, whose songs are mostly in his typical heartbreak mode. But even that wasn’t enough to purge his feelings.

He hopes that including the letter in the package will persuade people that this time he’s not just singing about those emotions.

Isaak, who co-starred with Bridget Fonda and Keanu Reeves in 1993’s “Little Buddha,” didn’t include his former flame’s name in the letter or in the songs because he didn’t want the media or fans trying to track her down.

Given the social climate, if the album becomes a big hit, it’s not too much to imagine someone in her position getting rankled and selling her side of the story to a tabloid.

“She’d never do that kind of thing,” says Isaak, still obviously carrying a torch. “She’s got a good heart.”