Season 7 Redux – Top 5 and Beyond

Paula-gate!!!

David COOK FTMFW! hee. Couldn’t help myself. Thanks for the opportunity to rewind here, mj. Fun stuff! I really really liked this group. I was so invested in them all…but especially my favorite. Still.

Awwwwww Paula was just fine. I believe her story – she was reading notes from the dress rehearsal and was taken by surprise. Ryan said earlier in the show that they would not critique until AFTER the 2nd songs.

Am I naive? Maybe. I also believe that my votes counted! All thousands of them! hee. :clap_tb:

Anyway: I actually like some Neil Diamond songs. My dad was always a fan, so I have heard a decent number of them. Idol seriously erred by having this be an hour-long show—10 performances in an hour was just ridiculous, especially with everything else. And then they made Paula think on the fly. Never a good idea. That’s not an excuse for what happened—that was just wrong, wrong, wrong. Jason Castro was forced to perform a song minutes after being told that his performance was going to suck. That’s just not right.

JC/Forever in Blue Jeans: I liked this performance. It wasn’t a great performance, but I enjoyed it.

DC: I’m Alive: I was much more positive about this performance when it first aired than some of my buddies—I liked the uptempo, upbeat song for him, and I liked that it was different from his other song and from the songs that he’d done in prior weeks.

BW: I’m a Believer: I did not like this at all. And I usually like Brooke, so….

DA: Sweet Caroline: DA managed to pick two of the Neil Diamond songs that I simply don’t like. I appreciated that he did a couple of uptempo songs this week, but….

SM: Hello Again: I actually loved this. I always liked her more restrained performances more than the diva showcases.

JC/2: September Morn: Not as strong as the first song, but then again, he’d already been told that it was going to be weak. I give him some leeway because of that.

DC/2: I loved this. Great arrangement—at some point, I hunted down the original and couldn’t make it through it. I loved the acoustic guitar, his voice, the falsetto, his overall performance. The hair? I did not love the hair.

BW/2: I Am I Said. I loved, loved, loved this.

DA: Coming to America. Again, not a Neil Diamond song that I like, but I also didn’t really like the arrangement.

SM: I also liked this and thought that Simon was just off on it.

My DVR did not tape the results show (sigh). I seem to recall that this was the last group performance that I liked before the finale.

The results: If I ignore Paulagate, I’d have been torn between Jason and Brooke to go at Top 5. He had two okay to fine performances. BW had one ugh performance and one great performance. But I felt fine with JC surviving, given that he had this additional burden because of Paula. And, no, I don’t believe that SM was in the bottom 2, and it kind of stinks that she was forced to go through that again when she hadn’t earned it. Brooke’s sing-out was incredibly painful to watch. And, oh, yeah. Someone totally directed DC to move BW in some way on the stage during her sing-out.

Thanks MJ for having this forum every night. It’s been fun to relive season 7.

I had a blast tonight watching Idol after Idol after Idol. Mostly I watched David Cook. I loved both of the Neal Diamond songs. “I’m Alive” is one of my favorite downloads from the season. I like to drive around listening and singing to it. And Always Be My Baby, another favorite.

I liked the mentors. Hope they don’t do away with them. I always like to see a talented and accomplished artist mentoring new talent. Maria Carey, for instance, surprised me. In a good way.

Neil Diamond week was kinda bad for me except for AIRNIY. At the risk of sounding like an ignorant kid, he just seemed like a cheesy old guy. I didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t know any ND except Sweet Caroline, and what I came away with was that thereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a big disparity in the quality of his songs. ND may be prolific, but not consistently good– a lot of his songs are repetitive and seem to just lay there, even in a 1:30 sample. Simon called Syeshaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Hello Again old fashioned, but really, all the songs sounded really dated to me except for DCà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s. The songs were either meh or karaoke to me, not to mention that ND was also a pretty useless mentor from the clips. I mean, whatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s up with the unnecessarily advice of telling Brooke to change that line in I Am I Said to Arizona, while leaving her to crash and burn as she hammed up Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m a Believer? I Am I Said was gorgeous, and didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t need his bad advice, Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m a Believer did.

Jason, picked two of the prettier melodic songs, I thought. Forever in Blue Jeans was aite, but not as good as Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve seen him. But Jason, why are you always giving the producers ammunition to support the meme that you donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t care? The unpreparedness he showed in the clip predisposed the judges to critique his lack of conviction again (and for Paula, even before the performance!). For September Morn, the lump in his throat wasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t a big deal, but it was more of the same Jason weà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢re used to. It was passable, but not as good as he had been in the past due to the 2 song demand, (though better than Memory to me, because at least I didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t feel like he mangled a good original since I had no frame of comparison.)

DC: Holy hairpiece tonight. I wonder if they got the idea after the emo superhero look from last weekà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Ford commercial. I get DCà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s song choices from a strategic standpointà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ after last weekà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s B-way performance, he had to go back to showing his style. Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m Alive is somewhat lyrically interesting, but as a song seems to lack a melody and repeat the same few chords. Also, DC didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t seem to own the performance for once. It was just aite for me. AIRNIY is one of my favorite performances from DCà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ Simon was dead on that he made it seem current. And DC seemed way more connected to it. Probably the reason why Lie is one of my favorites from DCTR is because ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s this similar side of DC that I liked from AIRNIY

Brooke: Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m a Believer was kind of a nightmare. She looked almost KLC crazy-eyed. Another karaoke song. But I floved I Am I Said. This was a really good ND song, and she did it wellà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ no nerves at all. Enjoyable. Welcome back Brooke White, even though it was a too late.

Archie: Sweet Caroline did seem amateurish because ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s such a popular karaoke song and so overdone, and he didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t do that much to it to make it his own, IMO. Second song was more interesting because it at least seemed like there were some change ups to the. There was a voice crack in there, but he ended really strong. I just didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t really like the song. Simon was pretty condescending though.

Syesha: she also picked two more melodic songs, I thought. Hello Again was nice, but old fashioned. TYLFRTN was great though. Theatrical, but effective and fun, and a Broadway performance is at least a nice break from the karaoke. I think Simon pronouncing her in trouble was based on the fact that Brooke rallied for her second song, and she and Jason had presumably larger fanbases. What he didnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t realize though, was that in stating his à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“calculatedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  guess, (which I can only assume he did because he likes to make predictions and be proven right), was that such a statement served to rally up casual voters to support Syesha, who had a stronger night on average than Brooke or Jason.

Yay for the return of the goofy dancing in the group number! ND week wasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t a total bust. Syesha needs to stop saying “like” so much.

DA’s “coming to America” was the one I recently heard that he wanted to change up but the producers wouldn’t let him.

ah really LK? well he added on to the end of the song at least.

I’ll refrain from commenting on all of Top4 because I’ve written a novel for Top5. I have to say this: I hated HLTW, even though I actually missed DC’s lyrical flub on the first time. He covered it well, thought rewatching now, he does have an Oh Shit look on his face when he finished. To be fair, I missed Archie’s flub from ALW week as well, so maybe I’m just not a careful watcher. What I loved from DC this week though, was Baba O’Riley (great song), and the way DC owned up to having an off night without making excuses. I really really liked that.

I actually thought Jason had good picks for this week for him, but too bad he couldn’t pull them off that well. It was an off night for DC too, maybe they were just really overworked this week. ARchie and Syesha had strong nights though. I wasn’t crazy about Archie’s Love Me Tender, but I really liked Stand By Me. Syesha’s Proud Mary was pretty copycat, but she was really good for the Sam Cooke song. I still don’t enjoy hearing her talk to herself in the third person, or parallel the civil rights movement with her struggles on the show… for all her verbal diarrhea, I appreciated when Brooke articulated why she broke down when she was bottom 3 Top9 night– that while the show is a difficult experience for her, seeing the IGB clip reminded her of a whole different level of difficult, and sad. I liked that perspective.

OK, I’m too lazy to rewatch the top 5 performances so I’ll just go by memory. If I commit a May-gate and start to accidentally comment on Top 4 night, please forgive me. This is hard!

Cook: Interesting hair….Anyway, when I first heard I’m Alive, I didn’t really like it and it seemed to end too abruptly (stop doing that Cook!). However, when I watched it a 2nd time, I started to really dig the performance….he also sings it with this low growl that’s very sexy. To me, I’m Alive plus Dream Big = Declaration (well sort of). I absolutely LOVED his second song AIRNY and I will NEVER forgive American Idol for not releasing it as a studio version! To me this was one of the most overlooked performances of the season that had the misfortune of being overshadowed by Paula’s shenanigans. Once again, it really showcased how versatile he was as a singer.

Jason: I actually enjoyed Forever in Blue Jeans. Yes, it was very mellow and laid back, but Jason can pull that off. His second song choice was a tad dull, but I guess it’s kind of hard to put that much effort into a song when someone has already told you that it’s going to suck. Thanks Paula.

Archie: Didn’t like. In all fairness to little D, I don’t think he could have done anything to make me like those songs. They both strike me as karaoke moments waiting to happen.

Syesha: The second best of the night. I thought she did a lovely job with Hello Again (I guess that makes me old-fashioned in Simon’s books) and she showed a lot of personality in her second song.

Brooke: IAIS was excellent but I’m a believer was just awkward to watch and the wrong song choice for Brooke. I can’t believe that Brooke battled Jason for this song. She should have given it to Jason, thus sparing him from singing the mournful September Morn and hence sparing us the psychic Paula moment. Thanks Brooke.

Oh wait..were we supposed to comment on all remaining episodes?

I’m A Believer was kind of a nightmare (sorry Brooke!) but it was good to see her having fun and relaxed again on stage. I Am… I Said on the other hand was fantastic, IMO, and one of my favorite studio versions of the season. I think Jason’s performances were good too, I think the judges were just pretty much over him and wanted him out of the way, it didn’t matter what he did. The studio version for FIBJ was great too. And this was the worst elimination for me, I cried =(

Truth be told, I haven’t rewatched any of these episodes. I guess for me the first time was enough and if I want to revisit stuff there is always youtubby. It was a great season and maybe at some point I would like to take a stroll down memory lane, just not now. I respect Neil and his music, but it’s was mentors like these that make me wonder if they really want a younger audience at all. Some made some interesting choices, but most not really.

For the record, Syesha was best for me that night. She was steadily making a case for herself. Too bad everyone had pretty much made up their minds about her weeks ago.

To me, Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m Alive plus Dream Big = Declaration (well sort of).

Ohhh, trippy! I’m ALive and Dream Big both used to be on fairly heavy iPod rotation for me, until I downloaded a ripped MP3 of the SNL Declaration. I haven’t listened to either of them since then. Coincidink?

Also, I dug the emo bang extensions. There, I said it. I thought they were uberhawt and reminded me of the sexy superhero Ford commercial. Plus it was kind of fun to see Cook finally get those heavy emo/grunge bangs he appeared to have always wanted if his old pics are any indication. :tongue_rolleye_ee:

Top 5 Week:
I didn’t think Neil Diamond was a very good mentor. I do like some of his songs though.

I liked Jason’s Forever in Blue Jeans, though I don’t care for the song much. The intense bus throwing that the judges got into this week and Top 4 week was hard to watch. My own personal Knollish theory is that Jason got enough votes top 8 and Top 7 weeks to start to threaten the Davids a bit, and TPTB were dead set on a David-squared final, so they went over the top with the manipulations to get him sent home. That, combined with his illness and inexperience, brought on his elimination the following week.

This was the week that I thought David Cook just couldn’t get any better. I liked what he did with I’m Alive, even though it’s another so-so song. I adore AIRNIY, and still listen to it regularly. The arrangement and the vocal were amazing (love the emotional wail, and the perfectly-timed falsetto). I’m sad that that “moment” was lost for him because of Paulagate. This is the 1 song that I’d still love to get a full length version of. Loved his look this week too (and in the Tainted Love commercial), but then I was young in the 80s.

The Neil Diamond group medley was one of my favorites of the season too. Love the bizarre couch choreography, with random girls twirling and guys standing on it! I do get really frustrated that they had DC get us all riled up 2 different times, with Cracklin’ Rosie and Brother Love, then either switched to a slow song immediately, or ended the medley! I was glad that Brooke went home- I was a little scared that she’d have a complete nervous breakdown on camera the following week!

Top 4 Week:
The judges really bugged me this week- what was the deal with forcing the kids to sing iconic songs, then complaining that they shouldn’t be touching iconic songs? Especially after they had had to take on Mariah Carey, an untouchable diva, and Broadway, which is usually used as an insult on AI? Let’s hope for better themes this year, at the very least.

I thought Archie and Syesha both had great weeks. Stand By Me is my favorite DA performance.

I was surprised when rewatching DC’s Hungry Like the Wolf, to find that the judges hadn’t been anywhere near as critical as I remembered- I guess I was the critical one this time! After hearing Kiss on the Neck on his album, I think that aggressive/sexy vibe is what he was going for. Actually, I guess I thought it even at the time, I just didn’t have an example of a song that he’d made that vibe work on. So, knowing that, and being pretty sure that Bandzilla was not going there with him on HLTW (or even loud enough to really hear at all), I’ve softened up toward it a bit. I’d still be very happy not to ever hear the Duran Duran original ever again though.

I was worried about DC doing Baba O’Riley, since, for me, the Who are one of those bands that you don’t touch. Thankfully, I could tell before he’d gotten more than a few words out of his mouth that he was able to put his own spin on it and it worked. I like his version and the original equally, and that’s a rare thing.

As for Jason, I liked I Shot the Sheriff as well. I don’t think the judges even gave him a chance. He was also clearly ready to go home though, so I didn’t vote for him at all that night(I’d been splitting between him and DC, with an occasional vote for Sy, for most of the season).

DC: Hungry Like the Wolf was my second-least-favorite DC performance of the season. Odd song choice. It was better on replay because the sound mix was better—he was practically acapella on the night that it initially aired—-but still…. I appreciated that he was trying to mix up the tempos of his songs in the show, but…. It would have been interesting if he’d performed more like he had in the dress rehearsal. I wish I’d never found out that he almost did All Along the Watchtower. Well, I did love the jacket and t-shirt.

SM: Proud Mary. Picked another tiger. She sounded good but paled beside Tina. She did do a good job of proving (again) that she was much more adept at moving on the stage than the other performers. And Rickey Minor has some moves.

JC: I Shot the Sheriff. “I was thinking Bob Marley!” I actually kind of liked this, and liked his energy on it.

DA: Stand By Me. One of my three favorite DA performances of the finals, along with Smoky Mountain Memories and Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.

DC: Baba O’Riley. I really loved this performance, although it was too short. I liked the slowed-down vibe, and his voice sounded great. I do have some friends who think that it’s js wrong to slow down this song, but I don’t agree—I thought this was a viable interpretation of the song.

SM: Change Is Gonna Come. I actually liked this performance more than I expected that I would. She really stepped up in the last few weeks of the performance. Also, loved the dress. Man, does she cry ugly.

JC: Mr. Tambourine Man: I was really enjoying this before he forgot one of the most famous lyrics in folk music. Sigh.

DA: Love Me Tender. I didn’t like this arrangement at all. I just tend to think that the beauty of this song is in its simplicity, and this was not simple at all. If he had stayed as he was the first couple of bars, I’d have liked it so much more.

Results: Well, that’s a craptastic group performance. “I Shot the Tambourine Man.” Jason definitely had the best lines of Top 4. Bo! And his vocoder!

Too bad everyone had pretty much made up their minds about her weeks ago.

You’re painting the opinion here with a pretty broad stroke. Just reading the opinions in the thread illustrates that it wasn’t that cut and dried.

“I hated HLTW, even though I actually missed DCà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s lyrical flub on the first time. He covered it well, thought rewatching now, he does have an Oh Shit look on his face when he finished. To be fair, I missed Archieà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s flub from ALW week as well, so maybe Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m just not a careful watcher. ”

Holy cow batwoman! I never noticed this and I must have watched that on my computer over 40 times! I actually had to have the lyric’s and him singing next to each other and he made not just one flub but a few. He sang the same line a few times and on a few other changed a word. LOL

He did cover VERY WELL!!!!!!

He sang the same line a few times and on a few other changed a word.

It doesn’t surprise me. HLTW was a last minute switch, so DC probably didn’t have enough time to really learn the lyrics, what with hanging out in Las Vegas and wearing lime green matador suits and all. Plus, there were lots of lyric flubs by lots of contestants all season. IMHO, whether they got noticed or not largely depended on how well they were able to keep going, inserting words or repeating lines as necessary to make the song still flow smoothly.

Plus, there were lots of lyric flubs by lots of contestants all season. IMHO, whether they got noticed or not largely depended on how well they were able to keep going, inserting words or repeating lines as necessary to make the song still flow smoothly.

Or if the judges point them out or not. The kids miss lyrics more than the audience realizes.

During the Beatles weeks, I remember thinking, “What’s with these kids messing up so many lyrics?” And then I realized that I was noticing the flubs, because I know all of those songs by heart. Otherwise, I wouldn’t notice at all unless it was obvious.

Or if the judges point them out or not. The kids miss lyrics more than the audience realizes.

Carly said in some interview (can’t remember where now) that during ALW week, they were all laughing back stage because every single one of them had some sort of lyric flub that week. Some are just better at hiding it. lol!

They all had lyrical flubs at some point. Unfortunately Jason and Archie had some bigger ones that they were unable to cover. Archie on Beatles week I mean.

Paula Gate- I just hated the way it was handled. I realize that after Paula’s panning Jason could have rose to the occasion and shown her up, but that was never going to happen on Sept. Morn. What bothered me was the whole setup. They pulled him out of his warmup for his second song so they could do the impromptu reviews after the first set (as he was singing first). Then Paula’s gaffe followed by ushering everybody else off stage and plopping Jason on a stool and telling him to sing. What? At least the others got to go offstage and collect themselves.

By Top 4, I really think Jason just did whatever he wanted since he figured the judges would pan him anyway. I Shot The Sheriff seemed to be a bit of a polite kiss off. That week I didn’t vote just because I needed my torture to end and he was better off leaving then than sticking around for Top 3. Though it did amuse me that on Jason’s sing out the band is cued up to play MTM and he clearly stops and tells them to cue up ISTS. If he was going out, he was going out his way.

I just wanted to add on the lyrical flubs, I’m not sure if it’s an issue of some were better at hiding it. I think they all made minor flubs and covered well enough. If you screw up a word or two, you can cover and move on.

With what Archie did Beatles week and Jason did during MTM, they weren’t going to be able to cover that. Or at least not without it being completely obvious anyway.

Ok, just want to add that I liked I Shot The Sheriff and thought Jason did just fine on it. Found myself enjoying that performance and smiling a lot at his response to Simon’s……….

“What were you thinking????”

“I was thinkin’ Bob MARLEY! Yeah!”

That was SO Jason and really, really cute!

Despite what some of you young’uns think :cool1_tb: , every time I watch the Neil Diamond shows I am reminded just what a national treasure he is. Granted, his clips for each of the contestants all sounded pretty much the same, but that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t helpful to them at rehearsal.

But the songs- such a wide variety of really distinctive songs!
From the more simple “I’m A Believer” jingles to the really introspective “I Am I Said” types, his catalog represents some really stellar work. Alas, when performed by someone else they often lose something, which leads me to my main point- his performance chops.

Yes, he is a geezer, and yes, he embraced the cheese during a portion of his career. But watching that performance of “Pretty Amazing Grace” absolutely reinforces my opinion of what a truly gifted performer he really is- he sang the crap out of that song. Anyone else doing that would have been utterly flat- he gave that song life and a heart and honesty and just impressed the hell out of me yet again.
Just wow.

DAà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“coming to Americaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  was the one I recently heard that he wanted to change up but the producers wouldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t let him.

I have read somewhere DAà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Dad made him change a song and Idol had to pay a lot of money to compensate. Is it true?

In all fairness to little D, I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t think he could have done anything to make me like those songs. They both strike me as karaoke moments waiting to happen.

yes, he embraced the cheese during a portion of his career

Reasons why Neil Diamond was all wrong as a mentor. I love ND, but only he can get away with singing a lot of his songs. They are kitschy and fun, but when anyone else tries, they just sound like karaoke. This was destined to be a flop of a week, IMO. I personally think it was probably the most challenging in terms of finding songs that wouldn’t come off looking goofy.

That having been said, I really loved Jason’s “Forever in Blue Jeans” and Brooke’s “I Am, I Said.” That was all.

I just want to thank MJ again for posting these redux(s?es??) and to everyone who commented. I don’t get Fox Reality so haven’t been able to watch, but I’ve really enjoyed reliving it thru everyone’s posts. Thanks, and I’ll see you guys tonight for the new season!

IMO Jason should be the 5th, and Brooke should be the 4th or even 3rd. That’s because of Paula, she screwed it up!! Brooke should bounce back if she made to the top 4. She would sing one of fleetwood mac’s or anything and it’s in her zone.
Yeah, but that’s already happened, but i love all of seasons 7, and i love Brooke.

But watching that performance of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Pretty Amazing Graceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  absolutely reinforces my opinion of what a truly gifted performer he really is-

Totally agree about ND. Even with his uneven songwriting — some really cheesy and corny, but some amazing classics — he’s a treasure. His understated performance top 5 night caused me to get his cd, which is wonderful.
Anyway, loved DC’s All I Really Need and Jason’s Forever in Blue Jeans. Top 4 loved Baba O’Riley, though I too as a Who-lover was a little apprehensive. The unfair treatment of Jason simply culminated on that night. His Bob Marley quip is one for the ages.
Can’t believe a new season starts tonight. I’ll be on our own safety couch wondering who’s going to captivate us this season. I just don’t know if anyone will abscond with my heart (and ears) for the better part of my year the way DC did!

Youà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢re painting the opinion here with a pretty broad stroke. Just reading the opinions in the thread illustrates that it wasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t that cut and dried.

Yeah, I guess. But maybe it’s just the hindsight reactions and not those that happened in real time. Some people used her as a bathroom or snack break. Maybe I was generalizing a bit, but not too off the mark. In retrospect it’s always easier to be openminded, when there’s not much as stake.

Ah, these were two weeks where we got the wrong studio version from David Cook. Why weren’t AIRNIY and Baba O’Reily chosen for that? Oh, how I wish I had full DC versions of those two songs. I guess you can’t always get what you want.

Can’t believe a new season starts tonight. I think I’m really going to miss season 7, and it’s been fun to relive it with everyone before having to move on. I guess this place will see alot of new and returning names starting tonight, so just had to say I really enjoyed spending the off-season period here with those who stuck around, no matter who was your favorite and who wasn’t. This place really does have the best discussions and thought provoking threads.

Hope Season 8 is just as much fun as Season 7 has been!

I have read somewhere DAà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Dad made him change a song and Idol had to pay a lot of money to compensate. Is it true?

It has been so long ago that David talked about this that it is hard to remember, but what I remember is that he said the rumors you heard during the show were not true. For “stand by me” they added the beautiful girls part and he had been singing it all week and then suddenly after he sang it on the show, the rumors started coming out. David attributes it to them not having anything to talk about (Simon’s boring season 7)– not enough controversy.

Ahhh, I should really get on here late night, as I had some pretty strong feelings about stuff that have since passed, for the most part. Probably just as well… LOL

So, here’s what I remember. Apologies in advance if I overgeneralize.

Archie. I really enjoyed seeing him have more fun on Neil’s night. I think I must be crazy or old or both, but I’m completely befuddled by all this talk about DA wanting to change Coming to America but not being allowed to do so. Because, I’m fairly sure that version was NOT straight. Not to my ears anyway. Shrug, whatever. I didn’t like it. Maybe I’m mixing my memory with Love Me Tender, which I REALLY didn’t like at all, what with all the unnecessary runs and all on an Elvis classic. Who knows. I did enjoy both of his first songs each night though.

Cookie. FINALLY, I can answer my own question about why All I Really Need Is You is one of my favorites of his, when it seems a little underappreciated by the masses. ACOUSTIC DAVE!! Excepting Day Tripper, which also ranks high for me, my favs — AIRNIY, Little Sparrow, My Hero (homecoming concert) and The World I Know all, at least in part, showcase Acoustic Dave!!! So, anyway…. (I also love Rock Dave, obviously, it’s just acoustic Dave really slays me. Although, that clip of crouching wolf Dave from rehearsal on HLTW pretty much has the same effect. LOL Dude really was a showman at times, wasn’t he?)

I too really regret that we don’t have a full length studio of AIRNIY. I’m Alive is fun and good enough, but this whole comparison has reinforced my preference for Lie to be the next single release over Declaration, because as others have said, I’m Alive versus AIRNIY is exactly the comparison of Declaration versus Lie for me. EXACTLY! And, I have to add that I’m so encouraged that others made that same comparison, because it makes me feel less like a nutty groupie. LOL

Speaking of…. I really needed MORE on Baba O’Reilly. So many times, his songs seemed to stop way short, and that was definitely one of those times. (Dare You to Move is another, stay tuned…)

Syesha. She really stepped it up overall and showed her stuff both nights. And, I’m so glad. She totally deserved the props that Paula gave her, and I so wanted to punch Randy in the face, dawg. I don’t know what was going on there, other than male ego or emotional avoidance or both, but I REALLY can’t see such a sadly lukewarm critique of Change is Gonna Come from ANYONE with a pulse (aka heart.) I really can’t. Sigh.

Jason. I always loved Jason and these nights were no exceptions for me. I guess the judges were over him because they definitely revved up that bus, particularly for I Shot the Sheriff. Maybe it sounded different in person than it did on TV. Or, possibly, they just didn’t get it, akin to way that Simon totally didn’t get TWIK on finale night. Because, to me, Jason really captured it! Usually, I can see/hear at least a little of what the judges see/hear, even if I disagree. But, not here (and not with Randy v. Syesha above.)

Brooke fell apart, no doubt. Both of her songs on Neil night were subpar for me. Even though I’d always loved her voice and emotion, bouncy Brooke never did it for me, and she bounced through both songs tonight. Eyes closed, I Am I Said was good, but unfortunately, I watched with my eyes open.

Sorry for the dissertation! Guess I remembered more than I thought…

When Syesha originally sang ‘Change Gonna Come,’ she was vilified for reasons that had nothing to do with the quality of the vocal, as if some were looking for reasons to justify their animosity toward her.
Looking back today it remains a moving and prophetic perforamce, the one time Syesha made an emotional committment to a lyric.
The look on her face before Randy comments says it all.

One thing that I’ve found interesting is that my impressions of the various contestants and their performances did not change that much from when I saw them the first time and now. The only contestant whose performances I liked less this time around was MJ—otherwise, my opinions more or less stayed the same.

Wow, I thought Syesha killed with “A Change Gonna Come”. I had goosebumps. And when I think of that song in light of our new political landscape. Wow. She nailed it on Top 6. I liked her Top 5 songs – they were fun. She just had some real show stoppers, good for her to bring it in the home stretch.

I do not like to speak about Top 4 performance night. Because I was never a fan of Duran Duran’s HLTW. I love the Who and Baba O’Reilly. So the fact that HLTW performance was longer than BO, well was wrong; but even more wrong? the fact that we got a HLTW studio recording and not a BO recording. GRRR. Talk about being kicked twice. And that DC’s HLTW is my least favorite performance ever. I wish that he had performed “All Along the WatchTower” – he mentioned on EW’s Idolatry how he had planned to cover that song. Pffft.

IMO Jason should be the 5th, and Brooke should be the 4th or even 3rd. Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s because of Paula, she screwed it up!! Brooke should bounce back if she made to the top 4. She would sing one of fleetwood macà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s or anything and ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s in her zone.
Yeah, but thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s already happened, but i love all of seasons 7, and i love Brooke.

Oh, I think so too. It was the only week I was really frustrated with the person leaving. Brooke at least tried, and she had one awesome song that week, I am I Said was beautiful. She wasn’t one note only, even I’m a believer was kinda fun, it seemed like she was enjoying it. Jason should have gone instead of her, imo.

I liked ND week a lot. That’s another artist I was not very familiar with, but I knew both Archie’s songs and I’m a Believer. After the show I was a fan of the man.
I liked both Cook’s performances, AIRNIY is one of my very fav performances by him. I liked what he did with it, how he made it fit the 1minute and an half, and what I liked the most was where he went with his voice during the song. From low to falseto, it was pretty fantastic.
Still, I’d be curious to know how his Hello Again would sound, and it would be fun to have him singing a song called Hello Again.
Also liked Sy’s both performances, the second one more than the first though. She and Cook were the best that night.
Archie was good too, I liked America the most.
Didn’t like anything about Jason that week.

Top 4 was one of the worst weeks of the season. Cook took a break. Jason never recovered. Archie had one great song and a bland one, Sy was probably the best, but didn’t impress me.
I was happy Sy was #3. The girl deserved it. No one this season was so thrown under the bus like her. The producers must have been really scared she’d steal the top 2 from one of the Davids. I think she deserved more than she got from the judges.

And who picked the studio songs? Cause I think they really picked the wrong ones for Cook and Archie. Really…

Reasons why Neil Diamond was all wrong as a mentor.

His eyebrows….

So distracting….

Archie wanted to sing I’m A Believer on Top 5 night but Brooke won the draw. I wonder which song he would’ve NOT sung if he’d gotten to do that one. And I wonder if he would’ve done better with that performance.

Love Stand By Me in Top 4 even if it wasn’t his first choice and it brought up that contrived scandal.

For me, top 5 and top 4 weeks were where the producer manipulation showed in full force with no attempt to even hide it.

Brooke and Jason fell apart. Brooke self destructed and Jason showed he was in over his head. But the thing that got to me was the way both were edited. Granted it would have been difficult to not show Brooke’s meltdown, but Jason was edited poorly and Paula’s “mistake”, please.

David C did well top 5, David A did well top 4. The “scandal” of the beautiful girl lyrics “came out” to prevent David A from building on his slam-dunk top 4 performances. There is no way, in my opinion, that David A would defy a producer’s instructions about the lyrical content of a performance when he would not even defy a producer about changing up an arrangement a bit.

During these weeks it became crystal clear, if it had not before, just how the season would end.

This has been so much fun walking down memory lane. Hope that FOX Reality Channel does it again next year with S8. I had almost forgot that Bo was on this week. Noticed that DC was definitely listening to his advice for the Idols. One thing I noticed is that this was the year of barefoot performances from Syesha and KLC.
Once again thanks MJ :thumbup_tb:

Could lack of time be the reason for no AIRNIY and BOR studios? DC maybe picked the two easier songs for studios because he had only rearranged AIRNIY and BOR to fit into the 1:30 time slot he had and didn’t have time to do full versions of them.

I don’t think it was the contestants’ choice which song got a studio version. Some guessed it had something to do with paying more for rights to record certain songs, but who knows really.

All I know, is I would buy an EP of AIRNIY, Baba O’Reily, Hello and The World I Know from DC in about 1/2 a second.

Fling First Time I Ever Saw Your Face on there, and I’m totally with you there, Jolene.

Well I missed all of Top 5 results show, so i won’t even bother with that. Other than that I will say again Syesha was NOT I am 99.99% in the bottom 2. If you think she was, well look she was in the bottom 2 Top 6 so fans must be cautious Plus get on Dialidol and look for yourself ( was a personal voter and she was busy forever)

Top 4:

Jason Castro- should never have made it this far, lol

David Cook- very meh first performance. Second was good, but not amazing… still liked it.

Syesha Mercado- Top 4 was her week baby! She was incredible, in my opinion, her best week as a whole. It’s not usual someone doing really well on both performances, but she did it. Loved watching A Change Is Gonna Come on the big screen again- it was amazing.

David A.- Good first performance- ending was NOT good lol. Simon said it was the best performance so far I disagree completely Syesha blew him off the stage performance and power-wise. Easily the 2nd best though.
2nd performance: it was good. I dont think he crushed the competition. No way. He was really good, and a lot less mediocre than the past few weeks, but it was not HIS night

Loved both of David Cook’s performances, but I am one of those who thought All I Really Need is You was one of his very best. I loved the song, had never heard of it before and was so glad that he chose something less familiar. No offense, but I really am not a big fan of Neil Diamond’s voice although I thought he was a good mentor. I loved David’s play with the camera and therefore with us. Loved it! And, Jolene, as so often, I agree with you completely. I was very disappointed that there were not studio versions available of AIRNIY and Baba O’Riley. Both were great performances. And, The World I Know was my favorite of the entire season seven. I also agree with those who said that Syesha rocked the house this night. It was the first night I actually appreciated her voice and she seemed to have a bit more personality. Neither Jason nor David A. did it for me this night. Too predictable. Brooke was kind of a hot mess in my honest opinion.

So who does choose what the studio recordings are? Producers I assume?

Also, how come David didn’t get to do All Along the Watchtower? I watched the Idolatry video months ago but I can’t remember. I’m guessing they just couldn’t get it cleared?

I would love to hear David’s take of that song. I wish he would do it in concert. Heck, I would love for him to do all the songs I wanted studio versions of (AIRNIY, Baba O’Riley, and First Time Ever I Saw Your Face) but I know that’s just wishful thinking.

During these weeks it became crystal clear, if it had not before, just how the season would end.

LOL! I have to admit I thought during Top 5 Results when Ryan was reading David Cook’s recap, he ended by saying that Paula was right in regards to her comment that she was looking at the American Idol. He tried to cover quickly by adding “you’re at least safe for another week”. If I had been a believer of the show being rigged (which I’m not), that would’ve sealed the deal for me as to silence any lingering doubts. That plus all the supposed songs that Archie was told he could not rearrange when Cook got free reign to do whatever he wanted. I think Archie’s camp might have gone a tad over the top and exaggerated just how many times that actually happened to him. The only one I’ve heard Archie himself confirm was Top 3 Week for the song Longer, Producer’s crappy choice. Oh my…could it be sabotage?! *note the sarcasm* I am a huge Archuleta fan, by the way, but the conspiracy theories were getting out of hand by this point.