As part of the celebration of American Idol‘s Motown Week, the legendary label has—for the first time!—opened its vaults and allowed outsiders to sing over the original Motown studio tracks. For contestants, this is both good and bad. On one hand, there’s no risk that a singer will be dragged down by a middling arrangement. On the other…no excuses! And while a singer covering this material will always suffer next to giants like Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, and Stevie Wonder, those comparisons are heightened when their voices are surrounded by the very drum fills, finger snaps, and guitar obligattos that are on the original hit records. So how did they do? Here’s a rundown of all the tracks, which you can hear and purchase right now on iTunes.
Caveat: I’m not an American Idol watcher, so I haven’t had the opportunity to be charmed by the contestants’ winning personalities. And because they have a Mission: Impossible kind of task here, they’ll be graded on a curve.
1. Adam Lambert, "The Tracks of My Tears"
"People say I’m the life of the party" is the opening line, but Lambert is moaning before the song even starts. Smokey Robinson’s vocal had a little ambiguity, a little buoyancy (listen to the hint of the smiling embouchure when he sings the word "joke"). At no time in this song does Adam sound like he’s attended any party; you will not need to take a good look at his face. Still: pleasant enough, and emotionally dedicated without going overboard. B+
2. Allison Iraheta, "Papa Was A Rolling Stone"
Sung by a lady, so gone are the Freudian overtones in the tribute to mom-loving and dad-hating. And because it’s the Temptations on backup vocals, Iraheta gets to actually sing with the marquee names! Sassy and bluesy inflections, so I suspect that she owns Bonnie Raitt records. B
3. Anoop Desai, "Ooo Baby Baby"
Falsettos are kind of like whispers — everyone sounds a little bit more alike. Which means that Desai sounds a little more like Smokey Robinson, and the narcotic arrangement means that he gets a major assist from the Miracles, who envelop his lead with a cozy gauze. A-
4. Danny Gokey, "Get Ready"
He’s going for that Michael Bolton thing, I guess? At 1:04 you can hear him spitting on the microphone. I don’t recall that being one of Eddie Kendricks’ tricks. C-
5. Kris Allen, "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)"
What a great arrangement this is, with those buttery female vocals! Allen’s ad-libs are bizarre, although I like the weird la-la-las at the two-minute mark, right before he sounds like he’s getting angry and freaks me out a little bit. He’s putting in a lot more effort than James Taylor did. But sometimes effortlessness has its advantages. B-
6. Lil Rounds, "Heatwave"
Martha Reeves had one of the most powerful voices of all Motown singers, so much respect to Ms. Rounds. The second verse soars! If this song didn’t already exist in perfect form, I would listen to this. A
7. Matt Giraud, "Let’s Get It On"
The "Unforgettable"-ish singing-with-the-voices-of-the-past finally gets super-creepy, when he and Marvin Gaye trade "my body wants you"s. There’s a picture of Matt that pops up on my iTunes, but thankfully no Marvin Gaye hologram. C
8. Megan Joy, "For Once In My Life"
She sounds like Nelly Furtado on a bender. Stevie Wonder’s harmonica solo is intact, which gives us a too-brief respite. D+
9. Scott MacIntyre, "You Can’t Hurry Love"
Bizarrely, whoever mixed this put the backing vocals much further up in the mix than they are in the original, which lends a heretofore unrealized "traffic jam" effect to the song. Quality-wise, MacIntyre’s rendition falls somewhere between Phil Collins’ take recorded in 1982, and Kenneth the Page’s version, which only exists in my mind. It’s closer, alas, to the latter. D
What do you think of these new Motown tracks? Did the Idol hopefuls do them justice?
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LOVE ANOOP!
Anoop NAILED it -so so beautiful. It’s hard to look at these artists objectively because the judges are so clearly trying to throw a bias. That’s the part of Idol I really HATE. But I sit through it to hear voices like Anoops. If it gets any worse though this might be my last year. They view the contestants and cast members that they manipulate and juggle to bring up their ratings. Sorry – the judges have really sold their souls to the producers. Yuk
the smartest record label will scoop up Anoop. People will buy his music. Let’s hope he doesn’t win Idol so he can actually have a career instead of being an Idol Toy.
In spite of the producers pushing Anoop as far into the background as they can (even though the judges finally had to agree he is awesome because they would look REALLY stupid to try and deny it)he is my favorite as far as whose music I would actually spend money on. Bottom line. Adam is entertaining, Danny is not as great as they really WANT him to be (with his sad sad story line). Whatever, IDOL is NOT a reality show. It is a show staged with their pick of characters who are manipulated according to their ratings. It wasn’t until this year though that it became so GROSSLY obvious.
My favorites – Anoop, Kris, Matt, Adam, Allison, Lil in that order. Danny – WHAT is the big deal with him. Don’t care about his sob story. He gets weaker each week. Megan – please go home. Scott – you’re adorable but not that good.
Anoop Dawg – you are amazing. Keep on making beautiful music and don’t let tv land get you down. Stay true to yourself (which you always do) because we love you. You are the REAL DEAL.
Anoop I can’t wait to hear what you do for us next week. You are smart – you listen and improve every week while staying true to yourself. OMG – you have a beautiful voice. I agree – a SMART record label will find you.
Anoop, Matt, Kris – you are my top 3. Adam is also awesome but I wouldn’t buy music of his – who exactly is he other than a showman? Danny – so over-rated. The top 3 I named are the only ones I see really remaining true to themselves as artists. I don’t care what their “showman” skills are. That comes with maturity, experience and a producer to help you along the way. Woo Hoo you 3!
I agree. Anoop is amazing. I really don’t know the politics of the show, I’m a new viewer. But, I really didn’t understand why the judges were gritting their teeth as they were making comments about his STELLAR performance. Ooh, baby, baby, is a very difficult song (I’d like to see Paula try that one), and he nailed it! Maybe because he doesn’t dress to impress?
Good music is something the fans, and producers, of this monotonous charade evidently don’t seem to care much about. The show is BORING, BORING, BORING, to the nth degree!
Where TF has musical taste ever gone???? You’ve got to LOL, that or cry.
YES – the show has gotten so boring and they drag it out for sooooooooooooooooooooooo long. I still have my favorites but I Tivo the show so I don’t have to sit through it all.
the only ones with any real musical talent are Anoop and Matt. Many are there for entertainment value. America needs to wake up that this is not a REAL talent search. It is first and foremost a tv show that relies on high ratings to stay live. But, oh my goodness it gets worse every year the way each show is stretched to the limits and beyond of our viewing capacity. Time to retire this show. They no longer even make any attempt to make it genuine. My respect goes out to each and every contestant who are manipulated by the puppetmasters. The fact that you can all stand up there each week to be abused by the charades of fake judging and still remain respectful and gracious. Keep on rocking.
looks like your post has been the place where anoop fans flock to. anyway, i like this idea that someone who doesn’t watch the show grades the idol’s recordings without seeing their personality. i hope you keep this up with the non-motown weeks.
Anoop fans flock to every site! But seriously he is seriously talented and underestimated. He continues to grow and learn each week. He has a HUGE following.
Sorry but you’re wrong here. Lil, who I actually like, was just awful on Heat Wave.
She mostly shouted it instead of singing (the song does actuall have a melody) she was all over the place in terms of tempo, racing like finishing first would get her extra points.
It not only wasn’t an A it was closer to a embarassing D.