Idol Top 4: Bye-bye, LittleMama

Elvis night is weird. I get that he's a giant in the music world, and an icon and all that, but he's about as relevant to contemporary pop performing as...oh, who am I kidding? So far this year we've had Barry Manilow, Kenny Rogers, Rod Stewart and Andrea Bocelli. How's that for contemporary relevance?

I guess my point is that it's incredibly difficult to take an Elvis song and "make it your own". How do you sing an Elvis song and not come off looking like an Elvis impersonator? I think Elvis stopped being an actual person around 1958 or so and everything about him became an indelible part of popular culture. So this night was harder than I think it would first appear to be.

The show starts and I wonder: Is Randy 12? Quit with the booing of Simon, dawg. Yes, Paula boos, but she also cries, punches, and claps like a seal, so we expect that type of behavior from her.

When did Priscilla Presley die and why didn't anyone tell me?

Taylor starts off the show with Jailhouse Rock and it's just the way you'd think it would be, with Taylor jumping around and having fun and Simon hates it. Simon does not like that brand of performing, and at least he's consistent on that point.

Hey! It's Jeri Ryan! Seven of Nine is in the house!

Chris has the Elvis shades on, which works for me because then I don't have to see his dead, unblinking eyes while he sings one of Elvis' best songs, Suspicious Minds. And he acquits himself nicely.

Elliot's video clip has me worried - he doesn't sound that great and he's forgetting the words and he's singing one of Elvis' lesser known songs, If I Can Dream. Then he comes out and totally exceeds my expectations, as well as those of the judges. Good job, Elliot.

Katharine sings a mashup of Hound Dog/All Shook Up and I really think this wasn't necessarily a bad choice for her; she just fell apart for some reason. I agreed with Simon that it came off as manic and desperate, especially once she changed over to the second song. And when she forgot the lyric Sheila and I both gasped and yelled "Oh NO!" She was also really out of breath at the end. It's a shame because she sounded awesome in rehearsal. She always does, imo, and I think that if Katharine could just stand at a piano every week and simply sing a song without all the theatrics, she would be kicking everybody's hineys right now.

It's time for the second round of songs. Taylor is singing In The Ghetto and he does what I said at the beginning was very hard to do - he makes it his own. Very, very good performance. I wish he would do stuff like this all the time.

Chris is back and he's singing A Little Less Conversation, a very sexy song but he has absolutely NO sex appeal, so it comes off as boring as hell. And did he cough up a hairball at the end there?

Elliot's up next and his second song is Trouble and again I think this is not going to work and again he proves me wrong and brings the house down.

Finally, we have Katharine, who, despite advice from Tommy Matola to keep from being loud, does just that and tries to turn Can't Help Falling In Love into a power ballad. She sounded wonderful in the beginning, and this song was better than her first, but she is not a powerhouse singer and I think she blew her chance to make it to the end of the competition. She's not making it easy for me!

At this point in the game, I would not be outraged with the choice of any one of these 4 as the winner, so it's really going to hurt as they are whittled down. And I think Katharine will be the one to go tonight.