"Great American Songbook," Great Show

Usually the standards nights are some of the most boring “American Idol” episodes. But I have to say that last night was one of the best I’ve ever seen.

Before we get to the heart of the matter, let me answer one question from last week. According to “TV Guide,” Mandisa was going to sing “Who Wants to Live Forever” for Queen night; but when she was eliminated, Katharine picked it up. If only Mandisa had went with the torch song on country night, she might still be around.

To the scorecard…

Chris Daughtry, “What a Wonderful World”: 25 (out of 25)
The biggest knock against Chris is that he could only do rock. Now with that obstacle out of the way, I think he is without a doubt the favorite.

Paris Bennett, “Foolish Things”: 24
The performance was pitch perfect, but her outfit looked like she was a stewardess—or maybe a news anchor.

Taylor Hicks, “You Send Me”: 23
Everyone loved the ending, but I wasn’t totally sure about it (Of course it was a little hard to hear over the screaming.). It was still a good performance.

Elliott Yamin, “It Had to Be You”: 22
Sorry, Elliott, but you’re no rat packer. I agree with Simon that the performance lacked personality.

Kellie Pickler, “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered”: 19
I appreciate her not walking, but she was way too stiff. And even she recognized that she messed it up by getting ahead of the music, though, I wouldn’t totally agree with her assessment that she butchered it. However, she did pick a bad night to be off.

Ace Young, “That’s All”: 23
It was a nice change after the whole Queen debacle to see Rod Stewart hand out so many compliments to Ace; but he just lets his nerves get the best of him. And I loved the suit!

Katharine MacPhee, “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me”: 24
I didn’t think it was nearly as great as Simon did; but it was good. She could be moving up the ranks.

So, who’s going home? My first instinct is to say Elliott, even though Kellie gave the worst performance. I think Kellie has enough fans to carry her over this rough patch and Elliott’s appearance in the bottom two last week shows he’s vulnerable.

Since we’re down to seven, I would look for Ryan to do his two groups of three with the seventh person having to choose which group is the safe one. It’s known to produce some surprises. I think the bottom three will be Elliott, Kellie and Ace—but don’t be surprised to see Paris in there. The audience may have been turned off by the maturity of her song.

And by the way, I did vote tonight—for Chris, because I was concerned that since he went first, people would forget about him.

The results show airs Wednesday night at 9 with a performance by Rod Stewart.