Tonight was British Invasion night, with everyone singing songs from the 60s from British bands. Peter Noone and Lulu were the guest coaches. I thought they did a really great job, especially Peter Noone. The guys definitely sounded better than they have up to this point.

Haley Scarnato started the night off with “Tell Him” by The Exciters. Clearly, tonight Haley was going for sex appeal. The song was cute and fun, but I’m not sure if it’s her vocals or her legs which will get the most votes tonight. It was the most interesting performance she has done, to date, though. Randy thought it was the perfect song for her and that it had the “yo factor” written all over it. Paula liked the flirtatious side of Haley. So did Simon, although he phrased it as “you naughty little thing”.

Next, they brought the tempo down a bit with Chris Richardson’s cover of Big Maybelle’s “Don’t Let the Sun See You Crying”. I was so happy that Peter Noone told Chris to just sing the melody and to stop doing the vibrato and run thing. Thank you, Peter! I do think this was Chris’ best performance so far, although he’s still not in my top five favorite singers in the competition. I was glad to see him do the acoustic version, which was a nice change of pace for him. All of the judges agreed that this was his best vocal, to date.

The first fan question of the night went to Stephanie Edwards. She was asked what the hardest part of getting ready was. She answered that it was choosing the right song, since the judges put so much emphasis on that. She did a good job picking a song tonight, choosing to sing “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” by Dusty Springfield. Lulu said Stephanie reminded her of Beyonce, which thrilled Stephanie beyond words. I think she needs to worry less about being like Beyonce and worry more about being like Stephanie. Her performance tonight reminded me of Fantasia, if it reminded me of anyone. I don’t really have anything to criticize, but there’s something about her that just leaves me shrugging my shoulders, saying “whatever”. That was how she left the judges tonight as well. Randy found her pitchy. Paula said she looked good, which is never a good sign from Paula. She added that it wasn’t very fun. Simon said it was “cabaret” and that he misses her passion and rawness— I’m not sure I ever remember her being terribly raw.

Blake Lewis sang The Zombie’s “Time of the Season”. I was a bit nervous how Blake was going to handle the high notes in this song. I mean this song requires some real singing and, as much as I love Blake, I wasn’t sure what his range was like. Fortunately, he did just fine with the song from beatboxing to high notes. He’s so much fun to watch and how nice to see that he has a really good voice, as well. Randy said the performance was brilliant. Paula felt like she was at a concert. Simon said it was a million times better than last week and that it was the strongest performance so far (I was unclear whether that meant the strongest performance so far by Blake, of the night, or overall).

I really like LaKisha Jones. I think she’s great at being LaKisha Jones, but I think tonight may have highlighted her limitations. She sang “Diamonds Are Forever” by Shirley Bassey from the James Bond film of the same name. She had it narrowed down to two songs— “Diamonds are Forever and “You’re My World”. Lulu tried to talk her into switching to “You’re My World”, and I think she should have listened to Lulu because it sounded like a better song for her voice, which brings me to her limitations. LaKisha is great at singing a more narrow selection of musical styles than, say, Melinda. But that begs the question: how many styles do you need to be great at to have a career? But I’m not sure this limitation will allow her to win American Idol. I don’t know. It was the first chink in the armor that I’ve seen. Randy said it wasn’t his favorite performance. Paula thought it was the right song. Simon said the song was too old for LaKisha.

Phil Stacey got the best compliment of the night. He sang “Tobacco Road”, originally sung by The Nashville Teens. Peter Noone told him that his performance was the best he’d heard it sung. Wow. Really? This was my favorite performance of Phil’s. I sometimes find Phil a bit gimmicky and showy. I thought this was a really straightforward performance. The judges and I differed on this one— or at least I differed strongly with one judge. Randy thought it was a decent performance. Paula thought it was a good choice of song. Simon wasn’t crazy about it, comparing it to a bar band performance. He thought Phil might be in trouble tomorrow. Well, of course he might be. He was in the bottom three last week, and I don’t know if this performance was strong enough to pull him out of the bottom three, so we’ll see.

The next fan question went to Jordin Sparks. She was asked to name a song that best describes her. She chose The Pointer Sister’s “I’m So Excited” since she says that all the time. Lulu was pretty excited about her performance of Shirley Bassey’s “I Who Have Nothing” (by the way, LaKisha should have chosen a song like that). Jordin did an excellent job with the song. I have to say, I really think she has a better overall voice than LaKisha, and I think she puts more emotional content into her singing than Melinda. So, not that it’s just the three of them in the competition, but since everyone talks about LaKisha and Melinda all the time, I just wanted to say that I think Jordin could give them a run for their money. Randy said it was a great, great performance. Paula said Jordin is a good singer and a wonderful performer. Simon said she sang it beautifully, but it left him depressed. Well, it’s not really a happy song, Simon.

And then there was the surprise performance of the night— Sanjaya Malakar singing The Kinks. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Sanjaya sang “You Really Got Me” and… it wasn’t horrible. It was actually the first performance of his since his audition that I really enjoyed. One little girl in the audience was actually sobbing hysterically she was so excited by the song, or Sanjaya, I’m not sure which. Randy was shocked, but he liked it. Paula said it was fun. Simon didn’t have much to say, at all, but I don’t think he thought it was wonderful.

Gina Glocksen was asked the final fan question of the night: “Has being on American Idol made you stronger?” She answered, “yes”, and she was about to get to demonstrate exactly how. She sang The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black”, which I thought was an excellent choice for her. She really got to rock out, and I thought it was enjoyable. Probably not the best vocal performance of all time, but fun to watch. Randy said it was pitchy. Paula noted that this is the type of song Gina has fun performing. Simon hated it. I thought he was going to make Gina cry. He said there were moments of complete torture in the song (oh come on, Simon, aren’t you getting a bit carried away there?) and that it was style over content. He may have somewhat of a point there, but I still enjoyed it more than some other performances tonight.

The second Zombies song of the night was performed by Chris Sligh, who sang “She’s Not There”. Peter Noone asked him if he knew what the song meant— they didn’t really answer the question, but, come to think of it, I’m not sure what the song is about either. But, really, who cares? It’s a great song! Chris did a good job with it, too, working the audience and even managing to come close to jabbing Simon with the microphone stand. I thought it was a bit screamy in places but, overall, a really nice performance. Randy thought it had a strong ending. Paula commented he was dressing much nicer (what?). Simon said it was fun and a good choice of song.

The final performance of the night was Melinda Doolittle singing “As Long As He Needs Me” from the musical “Oliver!” I thought this was a dreadfully boring song. BUT Melinda did sing it well. After a while it’s a bit difficult to find a new way to say Melinda sings really well, but that’s about the sum of it. She’s really, really good. She brings out such interesting adjectives from the judges, too— stunning from Randy and sensational from Simon. Paula said she was in a league of her own.

So, here are my rankings of tonight’s performances:

1. Jordin Sparks
2. Blake Lewis
3. Melinda Doolittle
4. Chris Sligh
5. Haley Scarnato
6. Gina Glocksen
7. Phil Stacey
8. LaKisha Jones
9. Stephanie Edwards
10. Sanjaya Malakar
11. Chris Richardson

That doesn’t necessarily mean I think Chris should go home. I just found his performance the least entertaining of the night. But tonight was a hard decision for me. The bottom five on my list really could have gone in any order.