American Idol‘s Top 9 performance night next Tuesday will focus on the songs of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Ryan Seacrest announced during Wednesday night’s telecast. The guest performer for the following evening’s results show will be Rihanna, who will sing “Te Amo,” before another finalist is sent packing to the tune of Will Young’s “Leave Right Now.”
Idol last focused on the music of the Beatles’ legendary frontmen in season 7, when Top 12 and Top 11 week carried the themes of “Lennon-McCartney songbook” and “Beatles,” respectively.
AGAIN? Do these people have no imagination? Or is it that there are no artists left who will give AI rights to their songs?
They have over 150 hits with multiple genres of music. I’m sure there’s lots of choices to choose from.
Not only that but the strongest moment of this season so far was Lilly Allen doing Fixing a Hole and that’s not even a hit! I cheer a week of the Beatles. Although it would be a lot better if Lily, ALex, Katelynn and Didi were there instead of Tim, Katie, Aaron and Andrew.
*Lilly Scott
…and I think she was very overrated. She always seemed to be very pretentious putting forth an indie attitude and style. And after reading her exit interview here, I was glad she left.
The problem is that the singers choose the same songs. They should look deep and pull something different out.
Well, it wouldn’t be so bad if the songbook also included George Harrison’s songs (including his songs from ALL THINGS MUST PASS).
I totally agree. That would make it an awesome night. George was the best.
And no night is complete without Ringo’s as well (he did Octopus’ Garden right?) Can’t you just wait to hear Simon critique that one.
nnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh. My. Hell. This will be painful!
REALLY?!?! For the love of god NOOOOOOOO!!! Are we really going back to this barren well?! Did we not beat it to death the FIRST time with back-to-back themes involving the Beatles and Lennon-McCartney songbook?! Honestly, their songs are not that amazing that I need to be subjected to another round of sub-par karaoke covers of archaic melodies. It’s bad enough that after 3 rounds I can count on one hand how many songs performed were written in the past 20 years. Please, ban this theme from Idol FOREVER!!!
Not that amazing?!
They’re the biggest selling act of all history.
They disbanded 40 years ago and were the biggest selling act of the last decade. Check into it, those stats were provided just a few weeks ago in Rollingstone and Billboard magazines.
That’s amazing to many many people if not you.
I think that Idol will continue to honor the songs of John Lennon and Paul McCartney every year. They won’t stop. Countless singers of many genres have covered their songs. All of these finalists are huge Beatles fans and obviously will sing their favorite songs. That duo’s songs still sound fresh and timeless to this day.
If this was Facebook, I would “like” this.
Yes, Steve, you heard me correctly. While I’m not doubting that the Beatles (and consequently both John Lennon and Paul McCartney) were hugely impactful in the world of popular music, nor am I debating their stats as one the most successful in music history. What I AM saying is that sometimes you need to move forward. This theme has been done NUMEROUS times in one version or another. How many times can you hear one wannabe’s “interpretation” of “Imagine,” “8 Days A Week,” and “Come Together?” I thought we were supposed to find the next big music superstar, not someone that can get a special on TV Land.
Mc Prohhet,
What a totally ignorant comment!
On Last FM. The Rolling Stones only had 80 members of their fan group in 2007, The Beatles had over 2,000 which is now over 12,000 and the average age of fans is 22 more guys than girls and they are from all over the world!
In 2006,2007 and 2008 The Beatles were the # 1 most listened music artists on Last.FM and they are very popular on YouTube and Rate Your Music where many male and female fans in their teens and 20′s call them The Greatest Rock Band Ever!
The Beatles are still rightfully regarded by most people,most rock critics,and many other music and rock artists as The most creative,innovative,and prolific rock band ever!
As many people even some Rolling Stones fans have said, The Rolling Stones haven’t made a great record in at least 25 years or more.
And they copied The Beatles in many ways including trying to rip off sgt.Pepper with their Satanic Majesties Request album.And it was John &Paul who wrote one of their first hits,I Wanna Be You’re Man in early 1964 and they wrote it right in front of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards who were blown away and said how can you just write a song just like that?! And it inspired them
to start writing their own songs.
The Beatles wrote *plenty* of great rock songs including hard rock on The White Album and Abbey Road and as many have rightfully pointed out Paul invented heavy metal with his 1968 song Helter Skelter and people have also said John’s I Want You She’s So Heavy on Abbey road was also one of the first heavy metal songs.
Even in their early days they wrote some great rockers that were very rocky for the times, as The All Music Guide said,in their very good review of Past Masters Volume 1 that they proved they could rock really really hard,with John’s I Feel Fine from late 1964 which featured the very recorded feedback guitar on a rock song,and Paul’s great blues rocker,She’s A Woman also from late 1964,and what they called the peerless I’m Down which is Paul’s screaming rocker from mid 1965 which they performed even harder rocking, and screaming in August 1965 at Shea Stadium.
Also John’s You Can’t Do That from early 1964,is a great rock song, so is Day Dripper,Paperback Writer, And You’re Bird Can Sing, She Said She Said,Taxman, Oh Darling,Hey Bulldog etc!
They should have a MILEY week, could you imagine?
Great! This will give Siobhan a chance to reclaim her rightful place at the front of the pack with a subdued classic — Let It Be, In My Life, etc. — and will show who can’t handle a classic, gimmick-free song (Big Mike, Tim, Casey, Katie…)
Hope Siobhan knows that subdued is best done without a screaming end.
It will give Siobhan a chance to redeem herself. The sound was really off last week and she was the first one to perform and she needed earbuds. If you play it back, you will notice the first ones singing were off..
Lol, yeah I noticed it, and it’s because they can’t sing! Don’t try and make excuses for them.
Yay! Yet another butchering opportunity!
Didi would have rocked this. And Lily and Katelyn and that great-voiced guy with the mullet.
I thought the same thing about Didi when I read this. I loved her original audition of “Hey Jude.” I think she could have found something that fit her well . . .
Get over it!
Didi = Megan Joy = Brooke White….and look where they are today.
Yeah, Brooke White has cut two CD’s, Megan Joy is making a CD right now..so YES..I hope Didi will cut a CD as well.
Didi is a hundred times better than Megan Joy!
But Megan Joy is a hundred times hotter than Didi!
me are you stupid or blind? Didi is soooooo much more attractive than Megan Joy!
Hey, maybe Tim Urban can cover Kristy Lee Cook’s version of “8 Days a Week”? He can’t be much worse than he already is.
Whatever Tim Urban is going to do, I guarentee, will make Kristy Lee Cook’s “Eight Days a Week” seem like Mozart.
No kidding. At least KLC could sing.
He’ll do HELP and if we’re lucky jump off the stage!
I couldn’t agree more. He’ll more than likely jump in Kara’s direction during the performance to make it another safe week. lol.
Season 7 did this theme better. In fact, they did it so well, they did it *twice*.
The second time they did it in Season 7 is probably one of the worst performance episodes of AI ever.
yeah but dont forget about 2000′s week in season 5 http://www.whatnottosing.com/episodes.asp?id=70
and season 3 semi finals group 2 http://www.whatnottosing.com/episodes.asp?id=30
Whoever sings “Imagine” should be shot.
It’ll probably be Katie.
My money’s on Aaron Kelly
Technically it would fit into the theme .John Lennon wrote that song as a solo artist.
Better “Imagine” than “Yesterday” for Katie and Timmie.
Firecat, I’m with you! I hate when this show has the contestants sing Beatles tunes. Most do such a disservice to them!
I love Imagine, but it’s been overdone. Some songs do NOT fit well with some singers’ voices.
PLEASE DON’T SING THAT SONG AGAIN…
WTH just happened tonight. Thia is suppoded to be the “woman’s year” and by my count there are 6 guys and only 3 women left. Dang it who’s voting???Big Mike is getting sickening with his picking people up. His lift of Ryan was just disrespectful and his grope hug of Miley was totally inappropriate.
Imagine by David Archuleta was one of the top 3 all time best Idol moments. Nobody would be dumb enough to try it, this soon. (would they)????
Aron kelly sang I don’t want to miss a thing, and ain’t no sunshine… so eah I think he’s dumb enough to do that
dumb enough? it’s all about making the song your own, regardless if another contestant has done it. so yeah, if aaron can sing the song differently and add his own style, go for it.
Have you watched any of this season?! None of these contestants are aware of anything that has been performed (and executed!!!) previously on this show. “Why, yes, no one has sang ‘Feeling Good’. What new and clever take do you have?”
stop daring Tim like that! Usually signature songs are picked by many of the contestants and then straws are drawn to see who actually sings it that week. It’ll be there.
I hope they get Yoko Ono to guest mentor
as long as they don’t get Yoko to ‘sing’ (AKA screech, scream)
Hilarious, Janey!! Ono is certifiably crazy!
dontworrykyotomommiesonlylookingforherhandinthesnowOHHHHIIIIIIYYYYYYYYOHOHOHOHOHOuhhuhhuhhuhhuhh!
Who better to sing it? Siobhon seems too obvious. Would you ante up money to hear Katie try it? Andrew render it acoustic?
Wow poor Didi. This wouldve been right in her wheelhouse.
why just because she sang a beatles song for her audition? if she hadn’t you probably wouldn’t be saying that
neat Tim Urban gets to ruin a Beatles song as well as a Stones song.
Watch him sing Revolution.
I hope he does Revolution 9.
He might do one of their songs and try to put modern beats on it and ruin it. He’s not a good singer to me, just messes up the arrangement of the song with his wretchedness.
Te Amo?
Haha. I know. I was wondering about that. I thought perhaps she might do “Russian Roulette” or “Photographs”.
No shes def doing Rude Boy
Te Amo is one of my favorite cuts on Rihanna’s album! It has a similar techno dance pop groove as Rude Boy with the keyboard blips and wheezes. But I’m sure that if she does Rude Boy, everybody in that studio audience is going to be dancing in the aisles and in their seating sections!
Katie Stevens is going to butcher the Beatles? *hums to myself* “when I find myself in times of trouble…”
this is going to be an epic FAIL
AGAIN!!!! WTF!!! Couldn’t they have done a James Taylor/Carole King songbook night with them as guest mentors of the week? B/C both of them are touring together this year!!!
I have always wanted them to do a Carole King night! Why do they disregard her songs – they cross over into so many different genres and they’re so well written. Eh…I guess that would be expecting the producers of AI to know something about musicality.
Carole King would be a great theme week! Carole would be a good mentor and have them sing their song choice as she plays on the piano. She’s one of the best singers/songwriters of all time. Also James Taylor, who has done tours with Carole in the past. How come Idol’s producers don’t think of that?
maybe they can’t get the rights to their songs???
Possibly because the tweens won’t know who they are.
They know exactly the right things about (great) musicality since they again picked the songs by the rightfully widely regarded 2 most brilliant,prolific,innovative,and creative song writers of the 20th century!Carole King is very talented but she rightfully isn’t widely regarded as brilliant,and prolific as John Lennon and Paul McCartney are!She only had some good songs in the early-mid 70s.
dude ive been pulling for a U2 night for soooo long.