Great Songs! Great Show!

I knew Tony Bennett night would be a good one. Not only is he a great performer with true staying power, the songs are classics, but I get ahead of myself. Unfortunately I still find myself losing interest in the show in general this season. Well, on with the show!

RANDOM THOUGHTS: Simply put, great songs make performers better. These songs are classics, evidenced by the fact that so many artists have chosen to interpret and reinterpret them over time. So Tony Bennett really likes Sanjaya? Interesting. Nice kid. Kudos to him for working hard each week, but it's sad already. The chuckle of the night happened when Sanjaya went into the crowd and sang directly to a 10-12 year-old girl. He knows his audience. Simon seems to have a hard time with positive emotions, but we've said that before. Is Haley getting cheated on her weekly clothing allowance, because the dresses are getting smaller. How many times did Paula cut off Simon? I bet he gets sick of that sometimes. I grew up listening to these songs, and still choose jazz preferentially so tonight was difficult in a way. I'm so familiar with the great artists that have done these songs, that it's nearly impossible to measure up in my eyes, but there were some pleasant surprises and a couple of "wow's." It seems that we now have to refer to "pitchy problems" rather than someone being simply "pitchy."

BLAKE LEWIS ("Mack the Knife"): Solid all around. I liked the performance aspect especially. He was in tune, showed the style for which people love him, and even interpreted the song pretty well. I don't think he was in the same league as a number of contestants tonight, but he did well enough to keep going.

PHIL STACEY ("Night and Day"): Tony warned him. You've got to have some beat behind the song. All of the good versions of this song are a bit more uptempo. And what the hell was with his voice tonight. At times I thought he was trying to imitate Tony Bennett, but mostly it sounded like his nasal passages were congested. He was out of tune much of the time, like his earlier performances. And to say he's reminiscent of a young Frank Sinatra is really just saying something like, "Didn't Frank Sinatra used to wear suits when he sang?" It doesn't (and shouldn't) mean that Phil actually sounded like Sinatra in the least. And his lame "charisma" act after his performances is so old . . .

MELINDA DOOLITTLE ("I've Got Rhythm"): This is her genre. This is her style. And because of that she shines tonight. That is also part of the reason she starts to get a little stale on other genres. She will probably be an artist similar to Natalie Cole, recording lots of jazz standards, and doing songs here and there with more of a pop feel. I liked the fact that she went uptempo this week. And she is the best overall performer in this competition, by the way.

CHRIS RICHARDSON ("Don't Get Around Much Anymore"): Not bad for learning the song this week. Before the judges said it Stacy and I both said he seemed to put his own style into the song. He was in tune, had fun, and did a solid job. He's been unfairly treated by the voting public in weeks past and I hope he gets his due this week. He seems to be one of the few contestants that really works hard each week to improve his performances. No way he deserves to even smell the bottom three.

JORDIN SPARKS ("On a Clear Day"): Amazing! She did a great job. She gets better and better each week. It's amazing what putting raw talent in with so much positive reinforcement and great coaching can do. I agree with what Simon said about it being a bit old for her, but you can't really begrudge her too much.

GINA GLOCKSEN ("Smile"): One problem with her song selection is that it's been done so many times it's ridiculous. And the edgiest performance of it I've heard recently is Steven Tyler's (yes, the Aerosmith Steven Tyler) version he did on Santana's album. With all that said, Gina did have a solid vocal and it's rough when Simon starts comparing everybody. Her style is different from the others, but she's still a good performer.

SANJAYA MALAKAR ("Cheek to Cheek," alternately "Cheese to Cheese"): Next.

HALEY SCARNATO ("Ain't Misbehavin'"): When you choose to accentuate the way you look so heavily sometimes, the reality is that people may not take you seriously. Doesn't make it right. It's just how it is. Unless Haley brings the performance of her life each week, outfits like tonight will detract from what she has done. Bottom line is that it was a bit like Miss U.S.A., and it wasn't as good as others tonight. Shame on the judges for not coming up with anything better than "Paula, what do you think?" "Green is your color," and "(drool) um (drool) um, heh heh, um (panting) um."

LAKISHA JONES ("Stormy Weather"): It takes some serious nerves to basically say to a 6 decade recording legend, "I'm gonna do what I want, so @#$% you," which is what she did. He said don't do that extra stuff at the end (great idea). She did it anyway (mistake). As great as her performance ended up, that additional "ain't no sunshine when you're gone" took away from the total effect. She started out really out of tune, too. Ultimately she's one of the top talents in this year's competition so she's not going anywhere.

MY TOP 3: Melinda, Jordin, Chris
MY BOTTOM 3: Phil, Sanjaya, Haley
CRYING ABOUT WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN, NIGHT AND DAY: Phil's shiny pate, and his personality, too.

I hope it's more than wishful thinking! The big wild card is how long Sanjaya will stick around. It's anyone's guess at this point.