American Idol Top 10: David Archuleta Pulls Away
American Idol’s Top 10 Guys show was all about pulling away from the pack. In only the second week of the “real” competition, David Archuleta and rocker David Cook pulled ahead of the competition tonight. While Cook proved that he is indeed the top male rocker in a competition full of pseudo-rockers, 17 year old David Archuleta turned out one of the top performances in American Idol history (and yes, I’ve seen them all) with his rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” that absolutely destroyed every previous rendition of the song ever performed on the Idol stage (and that includes last year’s runner-up Blake Lewis).
I’ve been trying to resist the phenomenon that is David Archuleta, simply because he was one of the contestants who came in with the most hype. I did think that he had a great audition and had incredible vocals, but I really wanted to see the former Star Search winner prove himself on the Idol stage before crowning him the top guy in the competition.
Two weeks in, we have a top guy in the competition and it’s David Archuleta.
The night also featured a very strong performance by David Cook, who proved that Jason Castro isn’t the only “rocker” in the competition who is comfortable with a guitar on stage. Not only that, Cook proved that he is indeed the best rocker in this competition – vocally and on the guitar. With Michael Johns, Jason Castro, and Robbie Carrico all capable of carrying the “rocker’ title, David Cook proved that he is by far the rocker to beat at this point in the competition with a strong performance, stage presence, and just enough attitude to make it work.
Other strong performances were found in David Hernandez, whom I feel like has a tremendous amount of potential to make the Top 12 if he continues to improve, and Chekezie (Jacuzzi), who was doing a fantastic job until he insisted upon giving Simon attitude after his performance.
For some reason, a good number of the Top 24 (now Top 20) just insist on giving Simon attitude and it really turns me off as a voter and viewer. I wish that they would respect the judges like most of the contestants in the past, but so many of them feel the need to show a lot of attitude after their performances.
While this won’t make too much sense, here’s my vote count tonight:
David Hernandez: 5
David Cook: 2
Chikezie: 1
David Archuleta: 1
I know, I know. How can I say that David turned in one of the top performances of all time and only give him one vote? Well, I’m not on AT&T Wireless, so I have to call in my votes and his line has been busy all night! I think David Hernandez took a lot of risks, so I wanted to reward him for it and also feel like he has a lot of potential. Though I wish I got through more for Archleta, I feel fortunate that I got through once for a guy who is probably one of the few guarantees to make it into this year’s Top 12.
So what is all the hype about? Here’s David Archuleta’s performance of John Lennon’s “Imagine” – a performance that will go down in American Idol history with others like Tamyra Gray’s “A House is Not a Home,” Katherine McPhee’s “Over the Rainbow,” Kelly Clarkson’s “Natural Woman,” Elliott Yamin’s “A Song for You,” Carrie Underwood’s “Alone,” Bo Bice’s “In a Dream”, Clay Aiken’s “Bridge over Troubled Water,” and Blake Lewis’ “You Give Love a Bad Name.” It is that good. First chills of Season 7 came tonight. I tried to resist and I couldn’t.
David Archuleta, as Randy Jackson would say, that was the bomb, baby, yea yea yea yea!
My favorite is Jason Castro. He doesn’t give “attitude” to the judges and I like his non-egotistical manner in which he presents himself. But I never really thought of him as a “rocker” exactly. He doesn’t scream his songs and actually has a very nice voice – not the strongest vocally but sometimes it’s more than just that. Something about Archuleta, even though he is strong vocally, just does not appeal to me. Of course, I think the judges have already pretty much picked him as being in the finale, so it’s probably a done deal. That turns me off too as we’ve seen it before. I guess I always go for the underdog.
I got chills with Archaletta also. You left out Fantasia’s “Summertime” and watching “Idol Rewind” of season 2, evertime Aiken opens his mouth I get chills. I remember when he sang “Solitaire”. I never heard the song before and I remember just staring at the TV as I had never seen such a performance.
Yes, Clay’s abbreviated version of “Solitaire” still ranks as one of the top AI performances (even the writer, Neil Sedaka had tears in his eyes). When Clay returned, as a guest (invited back more than any other AI alumni), the following year and performed the full version-OH MY! THE best performance of all. David’s ‘Imagine’ was spectacular. I liked the changed arrangement. But remember, David is NOT an ‘amateur’. He won $100,000 on Star Search when he was 12! The judges knew that before he even auditioned for them. I think he was allowed to go through to ’stack the deck’. But, I do wish him well. I just don’t think, even if he wins, he will become an ‘IDOL’, in the sense the show expects their winners to become. Only Clay Aiken has that distinction, so far. Yes, even over Carrie and Kelly C. There were maybe 3 performances last night that should be considered “top”; most of the others were not great.
I totally agree with Toby’s mom, Laurie, and Jean. I like Jason Castro too but don’t think of him as a “rocker” either…reminds me more of the old “folk singers”. David really reminded me of Clay Aiken last night. I was bracing myself for an awful comment from Simon…but there was none for once. Simon started out praising Clay in the beginning too, and then changed. Wonder if he will do the same with David.
And Dave, I agree with you…I hate it when the contestants cop an attitude.
Aw I think he did too much to it (those weird up and downs, especially in the beginning). And I agree, Peggy: total Clay Aiken, which in my music world, is not a good thing. Kid can sing but kid needs to work on respecting classic songs and not changing them TOO much (I don’t consider this an update to the song the way I did with Blake Lewis’ performance last year)
Hey check out this blog, they have the mp3 of David Archuleta’s cover of John Lennon, It’s a great mp3 music blog, you can get the song here: http://popmusickingdom.blogspot.com/2008/02/mp3-video-david-archuleta-imagine.html
While I think David did a lovely rendition of “Imagine”, I do not by any means feel it was that outstanding. Certainly did not see much range even with the change ups. I do feel this young man has a successful singing career ahead of him and will definitely improve in the weeks to come, at this point the front runner for sure. However I totally disagree with Randy’s statement of “Best vocal in AI history”,Give me a break not even close!!!!! I HATE when they dismiss contestants from prior years as though they were irrevelant and all that matters now is those that are on the present show. There have been MANY EXCELLENT VOCALS that have come before David………………..
Thanks for the comments, guys. It’s always great to talk Idol with some knowledgeable fans!
Toby’s Mom – I definitely like Jason Castro as well, but wouldn’t say I’m a Castronaut justttt yet!
I do still consider him a rocker, just not of the traditional sense. He definitely has a kind of folk singer, guy who you can’t help but smile when you see performing on Santa Monica Promenade thing going on. I know a lot of the girls like him too! I think he’s in the top half of the guys.
Laurie and Jean – You guys couldn’t be more right! How could I forget about Solitaire?? That’s definitely one of the top Idol performances ever (and my favorite studio song of Clay’s), Summertime is a great suggestion as well, but I was never the biggest Fantasia fan unfortunately. Clay was truly amazing on AI and I think we often forget how great he was on the show. People are constantly compared to Clay during the auditions, but I don’t know if anyone is really going to be as great as he was.
Peggy – I hear ya. However, for some reason, I knew that Simon was going to love that performance. I literally got chills as David was making it through the verse and knew that this was going to be one of the top performances ever on Idol. It’s going to be interesting to see if David starts to have a little Melinda Doolittle syndrome come back to backfire on him. Eventually, the “aw shucks… Thanks, guys” becomes very risky, but I think it kind of works with David.
Thanks for the suggestion, James!
Marissa – I hear what you’re saying, but I do think that it was exactly “what the judges are looking for.” David took an old song and made it “current.” The vocals were very pure, arrangement well thought out, and he didn’t do too much, y’know? I thought it was great, but not necessarily the best in Idol history, which is a debate that would never, ever end. I do think that the performances ranks up there with the best of all time, but I think even Randy got a little caught up in the moment
Just one other point I have to make about David Archuleta. I read on a message board that “Imagine” was one of the songs he sang to win Star Search. Why this bothers me I don’t exactly know because Jordin Sparks also was on Star Search (did she win?) and I was rooting for her, but I get stuck in the idea that Idol’s premise has always been to bring to the stage “undiscovered” talent and make superstars out of them. And I hate how Simon has already picked David A. to be this year’s winner. He did it with Ruben and with Carrie pretty early on in the competition too. Makes me feel badly for all the other contestants.