Elvis may be dead, but he was alive on the Idol stage tonight. The contestants got to go to Graceland, meet Priscilla Presley and sing with Tommy Mottola. This worked more for some than for others.

There’s a reason I don’t usually publish the rumors about who’s singing what. Usually, they’re at least half wrong. In this case, the rumors were much more than half wrong— only getting one out of the eight right. Sorry, guys! But I thought the singers’ actual choices were much better than the predictions. So, here’s the recap.

Taylor Hicks started off the night with “Jailhouse Rock”. This was the one song my husband wanted to hear, so he was thrilled. I thought it was a fun performance— certainly the one where we could have seen a big belt buckle and sequins (thank goodness he decided not to go that route). Randy and Paula seemed to enjoy the song, but Simon pulled out the dreaded “K” word (that’s karaoke, in case you’re wondering). Let’s face it. Simon hates American music. Country, Elvis music that sounds like Elvis, etc. He just doesn’t get it. The song was what it was supposed to be. What else are you going to do with “Jailhouse Rock”?

The second singer tonight was Chris Daughtry. He sang “Suspicious Minds”, which is one of MY favorite Elvis songs, although I prefer the Fine Young Cannibals version. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in this version. It was, um, dull. It lacked any personality of “umph”. Especially whe contrasted with “Jailhouse Rock”, I didn’t think it even rated an “alright”.

Elliot Yamin started with a slower song— “I Can Dream”. I thought this was nice. Something about the way he looked singing it bothered me, but that’s about par for the course with Elliott. I’m not talking about the way he looks, simply the way he looked singing that song. Anyway, it was a good song choice for him, a bit jazzy, a bit soulful… a good song. The judges thought it was good. Paula thought it was his best performance so far.
Simon liked it, but what do you expect? It didn’t really sound like an Elvis song.

Katharine McPhee’s first performance of the night was some weird hybrid version of “Hound Dog” and “All Shook Up”. I actually liked her singing “Hound Dog”, but I thought the “All Shook Up” part was odd and a bit, I don’t know, unnecessary. She also forgot some of the words, which I didn’t even realize until Randy pointed it out. Paula liked to see Katharine having fun, but Simon HATED this performance. Well, first— of course he hated this song. It sounds like Elvis. But on top of that, he thought that Katharine was shrill and manic. Yikes.

Then, in another show of contrasts we went back to Taylor Hicks singing “In The Ghetto”. When I was young and listened to this song, it made me cry. I was saddened that it’s still so applicable to life. I think this was the best performance Taylor has had in the contest. I was so impressed with how he modernized this song without making it sound untrue to its origins. It was just great. And the judges, including Simon, agreed! He even said Taylor had “sung himself into the semi-finals”.

Chris sang another song that I really like—“A Little Less Conversation”. I loved it when John Peter sang this song in a previous season. That was so much fun. Tonight, however— not so much fun. It was, errrrr— BORING. My husband really likes Chris. He was also bored, though. The judges? Bored. I think Chris may be in trouble.

Then we went back to Elliott, who sang “Trouble”. I had no idea, but this is one of my husband’s favorite Elvis song. He spent lots of time singing it when he was growing up. Fortunately, he didn’t turn out to be like the words of the song. Anyway— back to Elliott (sorry about the rabbit trail). This was a really good performance— probably his best in the competition. In fact, Paula reversed herself from her critique of the first song and said THIS was his best performance. Simon said he really deserved to make it through to the next round.

Katharine was the final singer. She sang “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You”. Love this song, just love it. Great, great song. This performance? Not so great. I’m going to use Simon’s favorite I-word here. It was indulgent. Simon said he felt like the beginning was nice, but that the ending was just too much. He compared it to apple pie versus apple pie with a gallon of cream on top. I think the word you’re looking for here, Simon, is “indulgent”. Oh, and if anyone knows— WAS that her stomach hanging out the bottom of her jacket? I don’t usually go the fashion criticism route (a la Paula), but something was just wrong about that outfit!

So, I think Chris and Katharine will most likely be in the bottom 2 tomorrow. Out of the two, I’m really not sure which one will go home, but I’m leaning towards Katharine.