“American Idol” Continues Its Long Trip Through The ’60s

Last night’s American Idol concluded this year’s installment of ’60s week, this time with the top 12 women taking on the favorite songs of oldies stations and baby boomers around the country. After the jump, Google Trends brings you last night’s top five Idol-performed songs and top, um, halves of a performer (as of 7:30 a.m. ET).

THE TOP FIVE SONGS
1. groovy kind of love (No. 1 overall; performed by Kady Malloy)
2. where the boys are (No. 9 overall; performed by Amy Davis)
3. baby please don’t go (No. 12 overall; performed by Amanda Overmeyer)
4. you don t have to say you love me (No. 39 overall; performed by Ramiele Malubay)
5. tobacco road (No. 82 overall; performed by Syesha Mercado)

Never underestimate the power of someone blandly pretty, I guess. I found Kady Malloy’s version of “Groovy Kind Of Love”–which was more in the vein of the Phil Collins cover, although I guess that counts as an “oldie” too since she wasn’t even born when it was on the charts–something of an off-key trudge to sit through, and excellent proof of the “stay away from boring ballads in week one” theorem that other Idol watchers have put forth. (Although honestly, Simon’s complaining about songs “aging” the performers when they have to deal with the dual constrictions of the songs’ 1960s origins and the band is somewhat churlish. You don’t have to start with ’60s week!) Same with Amy Davis’ “Where The Boys Are,” which came off as somewhat croaky. (As it turns out, she’s Vote For The Worst’s pick on the girls’ side.)

Two of the other performances on this list were completely pro: Ramiele Malubay’s “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me” and Syesha Mercado’s “Tobacco Road.” Ramiele gave “Love Me” a slow-burn take, and Syesha burned through “Tobacco” in such a way that caused Simon to rave about how she was the total package. If only he’d said she was The One.

And then there was Amanda Overmeyer, who gave America a a scat-filled take “Baby Please Don’t Go” that was probably the most befuddling-in-the-Idol-context performance of the week. She’s got attitude and a lot of moxie–and I appreciate her stated intent to avoid singing Janis Joplin–but I don’t think she’ll survive to the top 12, if only because I’m sure that any American who doesn’t have the Nuggets box set on their shelves was thinking “what was that?” (Never forget Leslie Hunt!)

THE TOP TWO HALVES OF A PERFORMER
0.5. ramiele (No. 88 overall)
1. malubay (No. 92 overall)

While there was a lot of other stuff going on last night–the exploding satellite, the lunar eclipse, the fallout from the Gene Simmons tape–I was sort of surprised that not one of the other women competing made the Google Trends top 100; whether this is a sign that the women are less interesting to the public than the men or a sign that people are going to wait until they get to work today to start their Idol Googling is unclear at present.

THE REST:
• My favorite performance of the night: Alexandrea Lushington’s take on “Spinning Wheel,” which had sass and spunk (although she should probably ditch the ribbon suspenders next time). And No. 2 was Asia’h Epperson’s “Piece Of My Heart,” which had fantastic tone, was kinda modern, and transcended the whole pageanty feel of a lot of the other performers.
• Carly Smithson–given the “pimp spot” at show’s end–admitted to her major-label past! Well, sort of; she talked about the record label that she was on “imploding” and that being the reason that she entered the tattoo-shop business. She sang “The Shadow Of Your Smile” through the flu/bronchitis/convenient excuse that caused her to be absent from the peanut gallery Tuesday night, and it attracted raves from Randy and Paula but I was lukewarm on it, like Simon; the whole performance was a little too Celine for me, to the point where I expected her to beat her chest midway through the verse. (Also, her drapey magenta shirt was absolutely horrible.)
• Brooke White, the sheltered nanny with the ’70s singer-songwriter hair, performed a wan version of “Happy Together” that was more palatable than David Cook’s sub-grunge version, but fairly “meh” overall. (How many songs were the contestants allowed to pick from, anyway? There was a lot of night-to-night overlap.)
• I’m thinking that Kristy Lee Cook–the girl who had to pull “Amazing Grace” out of her ass a second time in order to get saved during Hollywood Week–is going home; she started the show off with a limp “Rescue Me” that sounded sub-sub-cable ad. And before I saw the Google Trends results, I was sure that either Amy Davis or Kady Malloy would be joining her. So maybe it’ll be Joanne Borgella, who got somewhat overcriticized for her perfectly fine take on “I Say A Little Prayer,” or Alaina Whitaker, who was so memorable that I kept thinking her name was Alaina Alexander, who gets sent home along with Kristy.

PAULA ABDUL OUT-OF-IT SCALE: 7/10. “You are the lucky coin in the pocket,” Paula told Carly at show’s end. That was pretty much typical of her half-coherent banter throughout the evening.

[Photo: AmericanIdol.com]