We get another "Beatles" night. Things do not look good. They only got rights to 25 songs in the Lennon-McCartney collection. Of course, when Ryan is hyping the show he does not tell us that. They say they 'expanded' to the Beatles. How expanded remains to be seen. Ryan asked Simon what the contestants had to do to win him over. Can you guess what he said? "Sing well." What a novel answer for an singing contest that has become more of a popularity contest.
We get a retrospective of the Beatles. Probably for all those born since they disbanded. I remember watching the Ed Sullivan show they performed on.
Amanda Overmyer - "Back in the USSR" - The one trick pony is first. She did not look down so much this time. She had a lot of energy in it. Randy "7 out of 10" Paula "It was a little sketchy at first" Simon "Predictable. A bit of mess in parts. You are in danger of becoming a bit boring." Amanda tells us that they get a minute and a half.
Grade B
Kristy Lee Cook - "You Got to Hide Your Love Away" - She started out a bit shakily. She was flat at the tempo change. She did find the key eventually. She used the power of her voice well. This was much better than last week. Randy "It was an interesting arrangement." Paula "This is the best you have ever looked. It was a little safe" Simon "You are not a good performer. It is like musical wallpaper."
Grade C +
David Archuleta - "The Long and Winding Road" - He did hit his first note then dropped the pitch. The song was rather plain. He missed the attack on the final note. Randy "You played it safe." Paula "Blah, blah" Simon "This week I thought you were amazing"
Grade B
Michael Johns - "A Day in the Life" - His beginning was pretty solid. He missed his high note badly. It was rather dull. Randy "I do not think it was a good song choice." Paula "Blah blah" Simon "It was mess, you missed notes all over the place."
Grade C +
Brooke White - "Here Comes the Sun" - This was a good choice for her. The production was very good. She was wearing a sunny dress! She was good beginning to end. Randy "That performance was awkward. Never jelled for me" Paula "You have really good low tones." Simon "I thought the performance was terrible."
Grade B
David Cook - "Daytripper" - He made a great song choice for his ability. He was on pitch and on time. His was the best performance to this point in the show. Randy "Not your best" Paula "Loved it" Simon "I do not think you were as good as you think it was. You seemed to be a bit smug"
Grade A
Carly Smithson - "Blackbird" - This song gave her a chance to show the range of her voice. She made a great key change. Good tempo changes. Great dynamic control. Randy " Another great performance" Paula "Great arrangement" Simon "I thought the song was indulgent"
Grade A +
Jason Castro - "Michelle" - It was a decent choice for his vocal range. The timbre of his voice is not good for a song like this though. It was a decent performance. Randy "Very subdued by you...Alright for me" Paula "Blah Blah..you get disconnected without your guitar" Simon "It was not a good idea to do the Beatles again. You are lucky that this is television and not radio. Your face sold that."
Grade B
Syesha Mercado - "Yesterday" - She showed her dynamic and pitch range to good advantage. This was one of her best performances. Randy "Very, very, very good performance tonight" Paula "blah blah" Simon "I thought that was probably your best performance so far."
Grade B+
Chikezie - "I've Just Seen a Face" - This was a decent song choice for him. He used a harmonica to mark the tempo and key change. He got into the song. Randy "Some good parts and some bad parts" Paula 'blah blah" Simon "I thought it started off ok, then you played the harmonica. It wasn't as good as last week. Gimmicky"
Grade C
Ramiele Malubay - "I Should Have Known Better" This was only an okay song for her. Her performance was a bit flat for an upbeat song. The pitch was off. It was a mechanical performance. Randy "I wasn't jumping up and down. It was alright." Paula "It was better than last week." Simon "It sounded very amateurish. You chose a mediocre song."
Grade C
I was not as impressed with David Archuleta's performance as the judges were. It was NOT great. It was a little above ordinary. His roller coaster may have already reached the top. David Cook was about as good as he gets. Carly Smithson was much the same and her good is very good. The rest were just safe.
Amanda Overmyer is riding her only pony to death I am afraid.
Paula made her usually useless remarks. She was wrong about who was wearing monitors and was not. She NEEDS to go.
There is about 43 minutes of show in an hour show. They gave the contestants at most 22 minutes of that. More singing, less Ryan!
The first polls have Kristy at 41% and Amanda at 27%. The ones that should be in the bottom three are Ramiele, Chikezie and either Kristy or Michael based on tonights performances.
