“American Idol” Top 4 croon tunes that “shaped rock ‘n’ roll”
May 6th, 2008, 6:59 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Chris Hansen Orf
Tonight on “American Idol” the show opened with a history lesson on the origins of rock ‘n’ roll, complete with shots of the Hall of Fame in Cleveland, then the Top 4 remaining contestants performed selections from the Hall’s 500 songs that shaped rock.
Insert bad joke here: that’s as close as any of these contestants will ever get to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ho!
But we digress here at Idol Speculation, and here is who performed what and how they did.
David Cook: Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf;” The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly”
Syesha Mercado: Ike and Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary;” “Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come”
Jason Castro: Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff;” Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man”
David Archuleta: Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me;” Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender”
Here’s how it went down:
David Cook, who we predicited after our hometown girl Brooke White was eliminated last week would win the season 7 crown, was up first and performed Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” (seriously, this is a song that help shape rock ‘n’ roll?) which judge Simon Cowell called “a little bit copy cat.”
Then Syesha Mercado, who for some reason is always on the bubble for elimination despite a great voice (Idol Speculation just can’t figure that one out), performed Ike and Tina Turner’s version of Creedence Clearwater’s “Proud Mary,” which propmted Jackson to tell the singer she was “great…in the zone,” but Cowell said the performance a “bad impersonation of Tina Turner.”
Up next was Jason Castro, who performed Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” and all three judges agreed that Castro shot himself in the foot, with Cowell telling the dreadlocked singer that the version was “utterly atrocious” and likened the performance to “a first round audition massacre.”
Teenager David Archuleta’s “Stand By Me,” despite Idol Speculation feeling that the singer oversang the tune Whitney Houston style, with swoops in and out of the melody, was popular with the judges, with Jackson telling the singer that he “brought the hot vocals” and Cowell calling it “the best performance so far” of the night.
Then it was back to Cook, who did a gospel take on The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly” (or, for younger viewers, the “CSI” theme), which the judges decided went over better than the Duran Duran tune. Randy Jackson said the performance was “great,” Abdul
Mercado’s second tune was a rendition of Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” which Jackson didn’t like as well as “Proud Mary,” saying the performance “fell flat for me” and calling the tune “disconnected,” but judge Paula Abdul and Cowell both disagreed with Jackson, with Abdul calling the version a “superstar performance” and Cowell agreed with Abdul.
Then Castro was back singing (but forgetting some words) and playing Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine,” and he was again savaged by the judges, with Jackson telling the singer he was not “in the zone” tonight, Abdul lamenting that the tune “didn’t blow us away” and Cowell was even more frank, saying “Jason, I’d pack your suitcase.”
Fianlly Archuleta wrapped things up with Elvis’ “Love Me Tender,” and the judges were again effusive in their praise for the kid from Murray, Utah, with Cowell bluntly stating that Archuleta “crushed the competiton” Tuesday night.
Tune into “American Idol” tomorrow evening to see Castro eliminated…uh, to see who gets eliminated, then tune into Idol Speculation to find out how it all went down.
Three more weeks to go, gang!
