The American Idol season 9 finals are upon us, and you know what that means, right? Overpowering accompaniment from the AI band and backup singers? Check. Kara touching Simon inappropriately in front of a larger live audience? Sadly, check. And, of course, crazy-preposterous-cool theme nights!
Since, apparently, Ken Warwick and Cecile Frot-Coutaz did not read my gallery of 18 Utterly Awesome New Idol Theme Nights, the Top 12 will kick off on Tuesday night with the music of the Rolling Stones. And while it’s always scary when cherished rock standards are placed in the clammy, trembling paws of singers like Katie Stevens and Aaron Kelly, at least we won’t find ourselves subjected to the music of Creed or Hinder this time around. iTunes already has uploaded the list of 50 Stones tracks the contestants get to choose from, so I took a swing at suggesting the perfect song for each contestant.
Agree? Think I’ve killed my eardrums by blasting Allison Iraheta’s “Holiday” one too many times? Have some suggestions of your own? Then head to the comments and get your brainstorm on! And to get all my Idol-related updates, follow me on Twitter @EWMichaelSlezak! Now, without further ado…
Crystal Bowersox: “Gimme Shelter” (MamaSox needs to shake up the mellow-folk vibe and get her wail on; why not achieve that with one of the greatest songs of all time ever — one that, incidentally, upcoming Idolatry cohost Dawnie “Life.com” Walton and I love to perform at karaoke?)
Siobhan Magnus: “Sympathy for the Devil” (I can kinda hear her doing the Sandra Bernhard version, y’know?)
Didi Benami: “Time Is On My Side” (That lilting voice could definitely work on one of the Stones’ prettiest ditties)
Paige Miles: “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (If she’s as good as Simon keeps saying, let’s hear her tackle the choral intro!)
Lacey Brown: “Beast of Burden” (But only if she slows it down and ditches the full band.)
Katie Stevens: “Wild Horses” (Although she’s probably only heard the Susan Boyle version. Sigh.)
Casey James: “Honkey Tonk Women” (Dude needs a more distinctive vibe than Bryan Adams 2.0; time to put a little twang on it!)
Michael Lynche: “Shine a Light” (Might be able to take the song’s Gospel vibe to new heights, and maybe make me a believer? Hey, the dude at least sings in tune!)
Tim Urban: “As Tears Go By”
Lee Dewyze: “Street Fighting Man” (I might convert to rooting for the belt-challenged dood if he’d sing a song that I didn’t loathe. Don’t fail me now, Lee!)
Andrew Garcia: “Miss You” (Dedicated, naturally, to Alex Lambert. Oh snapzzz!)
Aaron Kelly: “Ruby Tuesday” (I’m guessing he’s probably had dinner at the restaurant chain of the same name, so…why not?)
Image Credit: Michael Becker/Fox; Inset: John Spellman/Retna Ltd
Who cares? It’s simply going to be torture.
Agreed. At this point and with this mess of a top 12, I’m not sure that I care. To make a point, I’m tuning out on Tuesdays. I can watch Bowersox online when I need a fix.
Do they leak the order of contestants so we can just tune in for Bowersox and the Glassblower? And maybe Big Mike and Casey. Or can someone just tweet me right before their performances and save me the torture of the rest, Please!
You got that right!
They got rid of the hot one, so there’s no point to watching anymore.
It’s the first time on the big stage. It should be lots of fun. Do great Didi, Tim, and Siobhan!
I do not get you Dan. You like some great (siobhan) someone pretty good with potential (Didi) and someone that almost everyone thinks is horrible (Tim Urban). Maybe 2 out of 3 ain’t that bad sometimes. You’ve got a right to your opinion and you’re not being a jerk so – good for you despite Tim, I guess.
Jeff, your visible rationalization process just made me laugh.
I try my best. (in hindsight I know now that Dan only likes Tim Urban just because Slezak hates Tim). I hope you’re laughing with me instead of at me. I was trying not to be a jerk for once.
Not true Jeff.
Slezak, your song suggestions for the contestants are probably going to be the bright spot of the rest of the season for me.
Why cant we just make it to a Crystal VS Siobhan 2 hour special please?
I think Didi’s going to work her way into that conversation over the next month.
she should already be in the conversation
Didi will be the first girl voted off, she’s too pretty for the American Idol female demographic.
Amen to that!
But we could be nicer and skip to Didi, Crystal, Siobhan Top 03 already and them the magical Top 02… xD
shall we campaign this?
Canadian Idol did Rolling Stones one season – I still remember Steffi D doing “Miss You http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4y04iwknWc . Very brave performance – I could see Siobahn tackling this. Since we are so short on sex appeal-iness this season, wouldn’t mind seeing someone do a smoldering take on “Love is Strong”.
WTF…1 & 1/2 minute of an 8 minute classic?
Putting Katie and Aaron’s names next to Rolling Stones’ song titles just doesn’ make any sense…
forgot the T. DOESN’T make any sense.
Katie and Paige are in big trouble.
Let’s hope so- they should have been gone already- along with Tim and Aaron. I baffles me that they are still there and I can’t believe it’s going to take a minimum of 4 more weeks to get rid of the lot.
Sadly I think Paige will be around for awhile. She is the only non-white female remaining and now has a monopoly on that voting block. Before anyone gets offended by this, I’m not saying that black people only vote for other black people. I just think many people vote for a certain “type” for lack of a better word. I also think Aaron Kelly will be around for awhile for similar reasons. There are people who always vote for the “16 yrs old and kind of awkward white male contestant.” There is usually at least one every season who makes it farther than he probably should.
If I were drinking something I would’ve spit it out of my computer. You are SOOOO right about that.
Wow, Tim Urban is the only one that didn’t have any parentheses around the song suggestion. I guess that means you think he’s great enough to possibly win this thing. I mean, Michael must have singled him out for this purpose only. Surely that was the reasoning. Everyone’s rooting for you Tim!
maybe Dan is just being sarcastic. should have thought of that before.
sarcastic in the way that I know Michael doesn’t like Tim (which is why he singled him out in the first place) Unless Tim really messes it up, which he hasn’t unto this point, he will make the Idol tour.
Paige Davis, Tim Urban, Lacey who cares and Aaron Kelly singing the Rolling Stones. My PVR is staging a protest.
Crystal should sing Beast of Burden, hands down.
Crystal’s gonna own my soul if she slays that! Wish I’m sure she will!
Crystal’s gonna own my soul if she slays that! Which I’m sure she will!
According to that article, Siobhan is singing “Paint it Black.” I can get behind that!
Me too! It’s my favorite Stones song, and I think she’s the only one who could pull it off. Lilly would have done fun things with it though. Sigh.
I just read through the remaining contestants names and felt sad and disappointed all over again (ex for bowersox and siobhan). THIS is the top 12? Ugh.
I think Lacey could do well with the Franco Battiato version of Ruby Tuesday (she’ll probably choose something more upbeat, though.) I predict Michael Lynche will go with Angie, which is “safe”, but he’ll do a good job. At the very least, I hope this forces some of the contestants to stop making such facile choices–it’d be one thing if everyone was hilariously mangling great songs, but they’ve just been boringly mangling terrible songs.
Tim Urban should go balls-out and sing Emotional Rescue. *That* would be good television.
LOL about Tim doing Emotional Rescue. I kind of would have liked to see Todrick tackle that one. I predict whoever does Beast of Burden will come out well.
I would like to see Lee do Gimme Shelter, Crystal do Sympathy for the Devil, and Siobhan do Brown Sugar.
I don’t even want to hear the top twelve sing. I just want to see two hot and amazing hours of Randy on Ellen sex. You can not honestly tell me that that wouldn’t be absolutely thrilling to watch.
Aaaaaaaaaaa, I’m Blind!!!!!!
Excuse me while I go throw up now…
No one should sing nothing because they suck!! Bring back Alex!
SPOILER ALERT: Siobhan is singing Paint It Black.