Rampant Idolatry

Syesha: Opened up Lennon/McCartney night with what could be described as a Motown-ISH version of “Got To Get You Into My Life” – but it didn’t have the pop it should have had.

Ramielle: Did a straight-up version of one of my favorite Beatles songs, “In My Life.” It’s a tough one to sing, and she hit it pretty well, but unfortunately it just seemed a bit listless.

Chikezie: Who woulda thought he had that in him? Chikezie came out guns blazing, nailing what I’d consider one of the lesser Beatles canon (“She’s A Woman”) in a fiery performance, building the song up from backwoods banjo to a raging rocker.

David Cook: His prog-rock version of “Eleanor Rigby” was one of my two favorite performances of the night – he had a few pitch issues at beginning and end, but was in the vocal groove for the most part in this very cool arrangement of one of my Beatles faves.

Carly Smithson: Frankly, I didn’t like it as much as the judging triumvirate – I thought she came on too strong too early with her vocals (like, immediately), and didn’t leave herself enough room to build things up…but perhaps it’s just cause never really did like “Come Together”

Brooke: Brooke did her Paul imitation, playing the piano, accompanied by the string section with a very heartfelt version of “Let It Be.” No frivolous vocal runs (she most likely couldn’t pull ‘em off anyway) - and it worked.

Jason Castro: The Jack Johnson of this season gave an acousta-snoozer of a performance on “If I Fell,” but you know the girlies will be digging it and dialing up.

David Archuleta: It’s tough to cover Stevie covering The Beatles, especially when you forget the words. I don’t know if David really fit into this funkified version, and this week’s performance of “We Can Work It Out” was his weakest so far.

Kristy Lee: She arranged “Eight Days A Week” into a revved-up countrified train wreck, though her vocals on the not-so-difficult song were OK. It would have been interesting to hear a slowed-down countrified version…

Amanda Overmyer: Please please me and vote this one-trick Janis Joplin pony off! No, she actually sang “You Can’t Do That,” but you can pretty much assume how that sounded, right?

Michael Johns: I saw him standing there, just singing “Across the Universe,” and not doing much else. Not memorable, and I think it was a wrong song choice. But I’m sure the chicks dig him anyway.

David Hernandez: His stop/start arrangement of “I Saw Her Standing There” robbed this electric rocker of its energy, and his showy vocal arrangement didn’t help things either. He’s got chops, but bad song choice.