During 50’s week, I found it curious that noone sang any Elvis songs. I mean, when you think of the 50’s, you inevitably think of Elvis. But I guess we now know why there weren’t any Elvis songs for that theme – 3 guys and a girl will be singing Elvis, so they’ll need to be cool, cocky, and bad (in a good way) to pull off his swagger. All this happens… tonight.
Opening Credits.
Here’s Ryan Seacrest, looking rather dapper. Kat has fans in Beijing, apparently. We’re almost at the finals, and here are the judges, The Honky Tonk Man, Jimmy Hart, and Greg Valentine, and this week the contestants are singing the songs of Elvis – two songs each. They get to fly to Graceland, and meet Pricilla Presley and their mentor for the week, the ex-Mr. Mariah Carey, Tommy Mottola. Apparently Elvis was the reason he went into music.
Ryan asks the crowd who the next idol will be, and it sounds like Kat-tay-li-is.
Taylor Hicks is first up, and his first selection is “Jailhouse Rock”.
To say that the song suits Taylor is an understatement. Taylor’s really in his comfort zone here, and he gives an energetic performance that hides any vocal issues that there might have been. Good way to kick off the show.
Hey, Seven of Nine in the audience.
Randy – Repeats what I said.
Paula – You’re original as ever and you were phenomenal.
Simon – In the real world, that was a terrible impersonation of Elvis Presley. It was just karaoke with a capital “K”.
Ryan asks Simon if he’s ever lived in the “real world”. A valid question, the guy makes something like $30 million a year.
Rating: 7.5/10
Chris and Elliott are coming up after the
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We’re back. and Chris Daughtry gets a lot of gifts, and questions about what underwear he wears. He’s singing “Suspcious Minds”, so let’s see if he can outdo J.D. Fortune here.
Strong vocals from Chris here. But typical for him, he tones it down a bit to give it a softer edge, and the emotion maybe isn’t as much as I’d like it to be.
Randy – It was kind of nice.
Paula – See you in the finals.
Simon – Sunglasses aside, that worked.
Rating: 6/10
Elliott Yamin is singing “If I Could Dream”. Tommy says some cryptic words that may mean Elliott will stink it up.
Three singers, three standard performances from them. The performance is pretty much what you’d expect from Elliott. Unlike Chris, Elliott’s wearing his heart on his sleeve, and powers out a good performance.
Randy – You laid it out. That was hot.
Paula – I think this is the best vocal performance that you’ve done this entire season.
Simon – You came into the show tonight as the underdog. So far, that was the best performance so far.
Rating: 7/10
I just realized that Elliott’s even shorter than Seacrest. Katherine’s up after the
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We’re back, and singing “Hound Dog/All Shook Up”, it’s Katherine McPhee.
Kat starts off behind the judges’ area. She’s definitely having fun, and adding “All Shook Up” in the middle is an interesting take on things – it caused her to miss some lyrics. I thought it was pretty good, but let’s see what the judges think.
Randy – I knew you had a good time with that, but what happened in the middle.
Simon – It looked like a desparate, manic audition. It just wasn’t a great performance overall.
Rating: 7/10
The second songs are up after the
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We’re back, and singing “In the Ghetto” is Taylor Hicks. Tommy tells Taylor not to dance for this song.
Taylor starts in the Federov position. And he looks like he’s gonna cry when he’s singing this. He’s singing this well though, showing a lot of emotion. He stumbles over a couple of words though.
Randy – The right key for you, the right song for you, that was hot.
Paula – It showed a whole different side of you. Um, we’ve seen that side before.
Simon – There is a world apart for me from the first performance. You have just sung your way into the semifinals.
Rating: 7/10
Chris Daughtry is up now, and he’s singing “A Little Less Conversation”, last seen on this show when “Pen Guy” Jon Peter Lewis did the Thriller to it.
My first impression is that Chris is too robotic singing the song. Too many words to remember, perhaps. Then I realize that he’s giving off that creepy Marty Casey vibe that shows energy but not too much emotion. He gets it together at the end for a good finish though.
Randy – That was the right key for you too. That was hot.
Paula – There’s nothing else I can say. Then SHUT UP, Paula.
Simon – I thought your first song was a lot stronger. Up until the end I thought it was a flat performance.
Rating: 4.5/10
Elliott gets a segment to himself after the
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We’re back, and singing “Trouble” and attempting to show a wild side is Elliott Yamin.
Elliott’s got a great voice, but to be honest, it’s not rough enough to pull of the blues very well. So great vocals, but entirely the wrong choice for Elliott.
Randy – I think personally that was your best performance better.
Paula – This was your best performance ever in this competition.
Simon – You’ve come out fighting. You deserve to go through to the next round.
Rating: 4/10
Ryan notes that Paula was gyrating like a stripper. Too much information, Ryan.
One last performance after the
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Katherine McPhee is closing the show, singing “Can’t Help Falling in Love”. Tommy tells her to emote, but not be loud.
I think she Celine’d the song, minus the hand gestures. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not really my cup of tea. I think she overdoes it a wee bit too much though, and that could cost her a Final Three spot.
Randy – I think that was better than the first song.
Paula – You have a lovely voice.
Simon – Katherine this hasn’t been one of your best nights. I wanted apple pie on it’s own, and I got apple pie with a lot of cream on top.
Rating: 6/10
Time to recap the singers, and time to start voting.
