Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Well, I hope Voice fans are in for lots of throwback music as the Top 4 take the stage tonight.

Because if you took Josh Gallagher out of the equation, you wouldn’t hear a cover song that was recorded after 1970.

And his song choices aren’t exactly what you’d call current.

Josh will sing Santana’s “Smooth” as his duet with Adam Levine. The song was released in 1999 and is the most current of tonight’s eight covers.

Billy Gilman is reaching way, way back for his song choices — Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” as his solo cover and The Everly Brothers “Bye, Bye Love” for his duet with Adam.

Of the duet song choices, my favorite is “Treat Her Right,” which will be performed by Sundance Head and Blake Shelton. The iTunes version sounds like lots of fun.

Of course, each of the Top 4 will also perform an original. Major kudos there to Sundance and Josh.

Sundance will be performing “Darlin’ Don’t Go,” a song he wrote for his 2015 “Soul Country” album.

Josh will be performing “Pick Any Small Town,” a song he wrote with Jeremy DeWayne Busey and fellow Season 11 contestant Nolan Neal.

I know The Voice is supposed to be all about the voice. But artists with the talent to write their own music rate much higher in my opinion.

Post-Voice, do we really need another album full of covers like Jordan Smith released earlier this year?

I don’t.

Anyway, here are all the song choices for tonight. Check back at 8 p.m. when I’ll be live blogging the performance finale with song by song grades.

And while the songs are available now on iTunes, REMEMBER (!!!!), downloads don’t count as votes until after tonight’s show.

Billy Gilman

Original — “Because of Me”

Cover — “My Way” by Frank Sinatra (1968)

Duet with Adam Levine — “Bye Bye Love” by The Everly Brothers (1958)

Josh Gallagher

Original — “Pick Any Small Town”

Cover — “Jack and Diane” by John Cougar Mellencamp (1982)

Duet with Adam Levine — “Smooth” by Santana (1999)

Sundance Head

Original — “Darling Don’t Go” from his “Soul Country” album

Cover — “At Last” by Etta James (1960)

Duet with Blake Shelton — “Treat Her Right” by Roy Head (1965)

We McDonald

Original — “Wishes”

Cover — “Don’t Rain on My Parade” by Barbra Streisand (1964)

Duet with Alicia Keys — “Ave Maria”

See also …
Ranking the Top 4
Who is The Voice leader on YouTube and social media?
A look back at Billy Gilman’s Voice performances
A look back at Josh Gallagher’s Voice performances
A look back at Sundance Head’s Voice performances
A look back at Wé McDonald’s Voice performances