After a week of Beatles, American Idol moved to another trove of 1960s hits with the annual Motown salute.
At the last minute, the show thought to include all manner of Detroit-born artists, playing some Jackie Wilson, and showing clips of Iggy Pop, Bob Seger and Madonna.
The remaining eight singers still all chose Motown nuggets, but there was one variation in the unusual duet and two trios staged to round out the two hour show, when Janelle Arthur and Kree Harrison did Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.”
What was odd about the group songs, obviously planned to provide entertainment, was that they were judged as well. Nicki Minaj thought Kree beat Janelle; Randy Jackson said Janelle was pitchy.
It wasn’t nearly as bad as later in the show when Lazaro Arbos, Burnell Taylor & Devin Velez showed how superior the Four Tops were by doing a terrible version of “Can’t Help Myself” in which Lazaro forgot a whole solo line.
Nicki said it looked like Hollywood Week again (when the group might have named themselves The Next Bottom Three).
“All three of you, go! Get off the stage!” said the momentarily power hungry judge, now turning director.
They didn’t leave, but stayed to answer Ryan Seacrests questions (to which they said, “well, I learned my part,” except for Lazaros, who just stuttered).
The other trio performance — by Candice Glover, Amber Holcomb and Angie Miller — was received well, but was strange: an all Supremes version of the song that was recorded by the Supremes with the Temptations.
Even with Smokey Robinson on hand as an enthusiastic mentor (why isn’t he chosen to be a judge at some point?), many of the most winning performances of the night were variations on the Motown originals.
none was so different than the one Janelle Arthur did to the Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hanging On,” a slowed down country performance done with guitar that she said she first thought up when she was 14. It turned out to be one of the night’s highlights.
Two other strong performances bookended the show: Candice Glover starting off with a heavy R&B version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” and Kree Harrison’s ringing version of “Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)” that was so strong Smokey said he’d call up Aretha Franklin to make sure she saw it.
Also powerful Wednesday was Amber Holcomb building steadily on Stevie Wonder’s “Lately,” in a performance meant to convince those voters who put her in the bottom three last week after a pretty strong rendition of the Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home.” What don’t people like about this girl?
It looks as though a female will win the show, too, judging from the iffy performances of the guys Wednesday. Though the judges were pretty much supportive, Lazaro Arbos’ version of Wonder’s “For Once in My Life” was a little mechanical. Burnell Taylor’s take on a third Wonder song, “My Cherie Amour,” seemed even worse, as he articulated the words as if he had learned them phonetically. I swear at one point he sang: “My cherie amort, how I wish that you worm mind.”
Devin Velez, who has been the bottom group the past two weeks, was the best of the guys with his version of “The Tracks of My Tears,” but it seemed a little off, too.
The worst performance from the women was a surprisingly wrong-headed blues rocking and verging on metal version of “Shop Around” from Angie Miller, who even Mariah Carey wished had been done simpler and from behind a piano.
Mariah seems bent now on being as weird as Nicki, wearing a dress of the same red hue, but carrying a scepter she kept referring to all night. The way she interrupted during the whole show you might think she had been drinking the same stuff Nicki was drinking as well.
The show’s allegiance to Detroit and Motown overall is a little suspect since they won’t even ask Smokey to sing on the results show Thursday — or have any other Motown artist on hand. Instead, OneRepublic will sing with Katharine McPhee and Keith Urban will be the first of the judges to perform.