Dean's World

Rudy: Nice delivery of a favorite classic rock song, "Free Ride." Edgar Winter Group. Cool. I thought Randy and Simon were a little too tough. He was okay.

Brandon: Nice velvety voice on an old Michael Jackson tune. A bit warbly. Simon--who is right more often than not--is right that the guy is capable of better.

Sundance: Another nice old classic rock song. He did nothing very interesting with it. Only weaker performances by others will save him this week.

Paul Kim: Very rough opening. Otherwise entirely boring, with a bad falsetto at the end. Even Paula Abdul couldn't find anything nice to say. Maybe going home?

My goodness, it's boring so far.

Chris Richardson: Horrible version of a good Black Crowes-style song (who did that originally?). Maybe the worst of the night. I'm astounded: Randy and Paula loved it. Simon is right, it sucked.

Nick: Also a nice velvety voice. Nice to see someone who bowed out come back. Probably the best of the night at this point. Surprisingly, Randy and Paula are harsh and Simon is complimentary. Simon is right as usual.

Blake: Glad he skipped the beatboxing. Very good delivery. He's probably on his way to the top 6. Almost but not quite great.

Sanjaya: Here's a free tip--never, ever try to sing Stevie Wonder unless you're absolutely positive you can do it exactly right. Stevie Wonder writes incredibly difficult to sing songs. Don't even attempt it unless you KNOW you can do it. And sorry, this kid can't do it. He may be going home.

Chris Sligh: This guy looks just like my soul brother Jerry Kindall with long curly hair. He's also by far the most charming personality in the group. He sung well, not perfect but still one of the best of the night--which isn't saying all that much, but is still true.

He also does the amazing--he insults Simon Cowell so well that Cowell actually seems stunned and hurt. Has that EVER happened? My God. Chris Sligh bitch-slaps Simon Cowell so hard Simon actually blushes. I'm astounded. I like Simon but mega-props for that. "Well it's not Tele-tubbies!" Hilarious!

Jared: I liked this guy's version of "Cupid" earlier. Tonight he was also okay, not great but one of the better ones.

A.J.: Another Michael Jackson song. Good but unremarkable. Paula Abdul goes nuts for it and I have no idea why.

Phil: There's something odd about his puppy-dog look. He starts sounding terrible, but ends with one of the better performances of the night. I can't imagine him winning but that wasn't bad.

Stephanie: She's got a funny thing going with her eyes. Great voice though, and she's got the falsetto "ooh" thing down. She could have been bigger with her voice, but she's already better than most of the men.

Amy: "I Can't Make You Love Me." You know, I'm surprised by how often Bonnie Raitt shows up in this competition. Anyway, beautiful song, and this is a very a nice, different take on it. If that's her arrangement it's awesome. I thought the judges were too tough on her all around.

Leslie: I love women with throaty contralto voices. But I also think it's almost always dumb to do an Aretha Franklin song. You're begging to be humiliated. She isn't singing this badly but... close but no cigar. Simon's a little too harsh, but I'm not disagreeing.

Sabrina: Another Aretha song? What, do these women all have death wishes? "I Never Loved a Man" is one of my favorites too. [Sigh]

Oh. My bad. She's doing this well. VERY well. Holy $#!+! Performance of the night so far! What was that I said about not doing Aretha songs? Okay, never mind.

First performance of the year where I actually rewound and watched it again.

Go Sabrina!

Antonella: Hmm. Is she all looks? She's doing that Aerosmith song by Diane Warren (the modern Johnny Mercer). Never loved that particular song. Anyway, Antonella looks nice. Competent but boring delivery. Next!

Jordan: I'm a sucker for blues, and "Give Me One Reason" is a great Tracy Chapman song. They accused Jordan of being too sugary sweet, but this is definitely not sugary sweet. Who did this arrangement? Very different and very clever. Another one of the better performances of the night.

Nicole: She's got a big old voice on her for being such a little thing, doesn't she? I sense the judges won't like this but I sure do. They'll call it a mess or something but I really like it.

She made the hair stand up on the back of my neck at one point there. This performance is probably just too advanced for a pop song competition.

Paula's right. Randy and Simon are wrong. That was great.

Haley: Good opening. Very smooth. A bit Disney-ish, but in a good way. Maybe I'm a little old but I think this girl is a possible winner here, she's got one of the best voices. The judges are muted in their complaints but I think they're missing the point.

Melinda Doolittle: Jeez, is this Aretha night or what? Okay, it's playing with fire, but you go ahead and...

Wow.

WOW!!!!

REWIND AND PLAY AGAIN!!!!

BEYOND AWESOME!!!

Hello, Melinda. You're not just Melinda, you're Melinda Doolittle. That's a name I'm gonna remember.

Alaina: A Pretenders song? Well okay.... yeah that was okay. A bit better toward the end than the beginning. But boring.

Gina: Once again I love women with throaty contraltos. And she's got a big voice. I liked it but I didn't love it.

Lakisha: "You're Gonna Love Me?" Gutsy choice on several levels. Jennifer Hudson from last season is getting too much attention over her version of this. Plus, frankly, the Jennifer Holliday version is pretty much untouchable.

Okay, Lakeisha did it pretty good but I didn't find it memorable.

The judges are practically orgasmic over it. I thought it was okay.

Well Dial Idol pulls a 50%. Not bad, not great. Rudy Cardenas, Paul Kim, Amy Krebs, and Nicole Tranquilo go home.

Interesting to speculate: have the producers managed to find a way to fool Dial Idol?

Phil: "I Ain't Missin' You," an '80s John Waite tune. Interesting choice. Nice take. Nice big note at the ened. Better than he did last week. Simon's comment that it was "karaoke" is a bit harsh.

Jared: This is my favorite Marvin Gaye song. I didn't love his falsetto, but nice "oohhhhh!" Simon's "Love Boat" comment was over the top.

A.J.: Nice smoov intro. Unlike most of the men, he knows how to do falsetto without being showy. "Mostly very good" seems to be a good description.

Samjaya: I guess I know why the girls like him but he seems kinda weird to me. I like his choice of song, "Steppin' Out," but I'd have to say he delivered that no more than competently.

Chris: I still like his attitude. He gives a good rendition of "Trouble." Surprisingly, he mentions after it's over that he was "saved by a woman" and Simon of all people says "Me too." Wow. Never saw that coming. Anyway, best performance of the night so far.

Nick Pedro: A Peggy Lee song? By a guy? How cool! He does a nice earthy job of it, and has good rhythm. I like his husky voice.

Blake (aka Beat Box Boy): A Jamiroquai song? Now that's interesting. I like his scat in the middle. He's also another guy who obviously knows how to go falsetto pretty smoothly. I would have preferred more "punch" at the end but he's still obviously one of the better guys.

Brandon: A Cyndi Lauper song? Really???? Wow, nice arrangement. Well done.

Chris Richardson: Surprisingly good. I don't know the song, but he did a good job of it.

Sundance: "Mustang Sally?" Okay, now this is obvious. He impressed people early on with a good earthy blues/soul thing, then he stank for two weeks in a row. So what does he do? He picks a standard bluesy song everybody likes, that's almost impossible not to like it. And he does it justice. To be blunt, I've heard better in bars all across the country. But if he couldn't come out and deliver a good rendition of this tonight, he didn't belong on the show. I frankly think it was his "Hail Mary" move. But he pulled it off. He'll be back next week.