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I’m afraid I cringed a little when Ryan Seacrest said David Archuleta was going to sing a John Lennon song on American Idol tonight, because I knew it would be “Imagine,” and I didn’t think it would work. A list of other, more appropriate songs ran through my mind, but the performance was everything the judges said it was: a great vocal, a moving interpretation, and by a mile the best of the night. That’s two weeks in a row the kid has blown me away. If I were inclined to download anything from tonight’s show, this is absolutely the only performance that would tempt me.

Unfortunately, nobody else moved me very much on what should have been a great night. I mean, come on! The Seventies? With such a rich resource of material, I expected more, especially from Michael Johns, who was so good last week. I didn’t think “Go Your Own Way” was a bad song choice, as Simon did, but he didn’t do anything with it.

The same could be said of Luke Menard, with “Killer Queen,” but then I got the feeling when Luke was looking at the song list, he was thinking, “I’ll take the Queen song.” If anyone here already has a niche, that’s his. He did pick a great song, but it wasn’t brave, because it was familiar to him. And his version of the song isn’t one that will stand on its own without being so much overshadowed by the original that it seems worse than it actually sounds.

Danny Noriega and Chikezie, on the other hand, were miles better than last week’s lamentable performances. David Cook far out-rocked Robbie Carrico, who got very defensive when his “authenticity” was questioned. Most of the others were forgettable, including David Hernandez, whose version of “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” was praised to the skies by the judges. Frankly, to coin a phrase, I didn’t get it. I even went back and watched it again to be sure, and I have to admit that the performance itself was good. The vocal, not so much. Sorry, just keeping it real.

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