Beatles Upstage Canadian Idol Wannabes

08/19/08 5:30pm

by Michelle Singerman (CHARTattack)

Beatles night on Canadian Idol wasn't nearly as painful as I had anticipated. A few of the five remaining guys even had what may have been their strongest performances of the season. But the best part of the night, and season, was the five-minute montage of classic Beatles footage shown prior to the wannabes' performances.

The judges were responsible for choosing the song list, and they did a pretty good job considering no obscure, non-chart-topping hits were picked. Tween viewers, or their moms, probably wouldn't want to sit through contestants attempting "Happiness Is A Warm Gun."

The night started off strongly with Earl Stevenson's performance of the Joe Cocker version of "With A Little Help From My Friends." It was definitely the right choice and was probably his best performance of the season. All judges approved of Stevenson's rendition, with Jake Gold saying, "I guess we were kind of right," in reference to song selection.

Next was Mookie Morris, whose performance of "Come Together" wasn't on par with what he's done on past shows. It was most entertaining when Sass Jordan compared him to early Bono. Morris' vocals were pretty good, and the arrangement was cool, but his transitions from vocals to guitar and back were a bit rough. As to be expected, the crowd and judges ate it up. Cougar Jordan told Morris he was a "great big jumbo pot of mmm, mmm, good." Zack Werner went over the top, calling it the best version of the song he's ever heard.

Theo Tams gave the first lame performance of the night. The judges picked "The Long And Winding Road" to allow him to make good use of a piano as well as his voice. He stomped all over the nice gesture. The song's intro was absolutely brutal. He pretty much cut off the opening segue, and it didn't get better from there. But the judges approved. Werner felt Tams made strong vocal choices, and all four were impressed with Tams' operatic abilities. Meh.

Mitch MacDonald also butchered the opening of "In My Life." The first few guitar chords are arguably some of the best moments from this song. Way to take screw it up, MacDonald. I think he was too focused on changing the song's arrangement, and it showed. He would have been better off if he had performed it as it was written. But the performance prompted Werner to declare this week of competition the strongest yet.

Drew Wright ended the night with a strong performance of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." He mostly stuck with the original melody, which was a smart decision. Wright's guitar playing also worked in his favour, as he demonstrated his strong musicianship.

I expected to be tearing out my hair within the first 15 minutes of the show, but I survived. The covers weren't as insulting as I would have guessed, and it's much more enjoyable to have a stage full of five semi-strong singers than the weaker mish-mash we're used to.

Find out who the next competitor to be kicked off will be when Idol airs on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT. My guess is that MacDonald will get the boot.