David Cook and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Last night on American Idol, the kids got to choose songs from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. This is a phenomenal list of songs. You can check it out if you haven't already seen it. I'm sure that they couldn't get the rights to every song on the list, not by any stretch of the imagination. But even without that, this list had to be impressive.

And what kind of a theme week could be better suited for Cookie, right? You would think. I definitely thought so. It seems like he did too...and maybe put a bit too much pressure on himself. I wanted him to just knock my socks off!!! And he did well...but he wasn't GREAT last night. I really felt like he was just thinking too freaking hard the whole night.

First up, he did Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran. He could have done some AMAZING things with this song! He could have completely changed it, rocked it up a bit more and taken off a touch of that pop edge. But he didn't. He sang it well, don't get me wrong. Cookie, even on a bad night, is head and shoulders above the rest of those kids, at least to me. It just wasn't...spectacular. Check it out and see for yourself.




At least he was hot as hell! And those eye fucks? Wow. I will never complain about that, let me tell you. He just seemed a bit subdued in his performance, and he didn't own that song. That's what we've come to expect from him...that he'll take a song...ANY song...and make it into something that so completely suits him that we can't imagine anyone else doing that song. This one...this one didn't quite manage that.

So I was nervous as heck for his next song. I knew that he was going to be doing Baba O'Riley by The Who. And that is one of my favorite songs of all time. Not only that, but we heard it done on Rock Star a few times, and it was FABULOUS. If you haven't seen Jordis Unga do it before, here it is. Really impressive. That was the first song performed by the first performer on the first episode of Rock Star: INXS. That was what got me hooked. And Cookie was going to do the same song. Nervous doesn't even begin to describe what I was feeling.

I needn't have worried so much. He did make changes to this one! And those changes worked, at least for me. He still seemed a bit...off. Like he was thinking too hard, and still trying to shake off that first performance. But he really nailed this one. The ending is a bit funky, but overall, a really solid performance by Cookie. REALLY solid. I love it. And then I could relax. Watch and see for yourself.




Oh...but wait...I couldn't relax yet. Because it was just an odd night on AI. Archie turned in probably the two most solid performances he's had in months, which would definitely earn him a ton of votes. Jason Castro had a really bad night, and earned some of the harshest criticism given by the judges to anyone at this point in the competition, which definitely would get his fans seriously mobilized to vote. And Syesha...she sexed up her look, she cried...she did everything humanly possible in order to get any votes she could get. So Cookie could be in trouble. I had to vote like a banshee yet again.

So of course, I spent a solid two hours of hitting redial on my phone. Please don't let him go home tonight. I need to see him more next week...and the week after. And he needs to win.

That is all for now, folks. I'll be biting my fingernails and ripping my hair out until tonight when Ryan tells Cookie to go and have a seat on the couch because he is safe.