Idol Rich: Hey, Everyone It's Lennon & McCartney Week

It was sorta-kinda-Beatles week. And Macca even sent a "Good Luck!" message via satellite from tour and everyone thought it was awesome. Looks were shared around the theater. People probably embraced, it was hard to tell. The band mates just played better knowing that message came from Sir with love.

Some Idols were kinda good. Others were OK. Some sucked...but the guy everyone thinks I hate wasn't one them.

Timmy Mop-Top Urban worked out a relatively respectable version of "All My Loving" off Meet the Beatles. It was a simple arrangement with Tim reuniting with his electric guitar. He hit all the notes and sang clearly. It wasn't nauseating. I know, right?!

Randy told him that for a Tim performance it was good...and much better than the last couple of weeks. Ellen felt it was his second best performance ever and a perfect song choice. Kara thought he was right to come back to the guitar and gave him credit for taking their criticism and wearing a smile. And Simon shocked the world: "I'm not going to judge you as Randy did on a Tim performance, 'cause I don't think that's fair. I think we have to judge you based on everything we've heard and seen tonight. And taking everything into consideration, I thought you did really well with that song. What I liked about it was there was no gimmicks. It was just the right thing to do -- you and the guitar. You didn't try to over-sing it. It really suited your voice. That song, it actually sounds very current what you just did. And what I really like about you, Tim, is that you take the criticism like a man. There's no whining, no winging. This is a shortcut to fame and you've handled yourself really well. I'm very, very proud of you. Well done."

I guess I can agree. But I can also see how without a fair performance last night, that smile would've just seemed like yet another, "Fuck you, judges! The girls are still gonna vote for me!" I've also discovered that early Beatles, and that sort of pop, is Tim's wheelhouse. It's OK to have sort of a crooner's approach to the "All My Loving"s and the "Till There Was You"s -- they're squeaky clean and accessible enough for the Duncanville boy to swing. Otherwise, he needs to invest his efforts in the older and slightly sleazy (think Diamond's "Longellow's Serendade") to be very interesting at all, so I'm hoping there'll be a '70s Soft Rock week.

Fort Worth's angel-headed blues-rocker Casey James went with "Jealous Guy" off of Lennon's Imagine. It, too, was a simple rendition with James playing acoustic guitar, accompanied by a cellist. His natural strong vibrato could at first seem a little intense in the context of such a slow song, but because it's unaffected it's actually sort of refreshing. And CJ (ooh, let's call him CJ!) seemed very into the song. Into it, as in, he was either singing it to someone he could say "sorry" to, or he's just really good at playing to the emotional groupies.

Randy liked seeing CJ's sensitive side and felt that it was heartfelt. Ellen said, "Whether [the song] was about somebody or not it felt like it was. That, to me, was your best performance to date." Kara liked that CJ showed a vulnerability she thought he'd been lacking, and that he truly knew his voice. And Simon, of the best quotes of the night, said, "Goldilocks, I think it was the best performance of the night, so far." He pointed out that while other contestants are consistent, CJ makes drastic improvements week to week. He went on: "I think it was your stamp on the song. I actually felt that you were emotional at the midway point of it. As the girls said, we saw a completely different side of you, so that's why I am very, very impressed with you tonight. I thought you did terrific."