Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The American Idol judges were pretty easy on the contestants last night.

Poor Amber. Poor Burnell. They didn’t know the Beatles songs they wound up singing.

Under the circumstances, they did well. Or so said the judges.

They didn’t do badly. They might have done better had they known the material. And they should have known the songs. Or at least heard them before.

Look, this Idol process doesn’t play out as quickly as it does on our TV screens. Months pass between the initial auditions and the Vegas round.

And if you’ve ever watched Idol, you’d realize knowing a couple of Beatles songs might come in handy. Heck, knowing a couple of Frank Sinatra songs might come in handy.

And you’d sure better have a couple of favorite songs from the year of your birth.

Still, the plight of Amber and Burnell serves as a good reminder to the show that current themes often work better than ones featuring classic music.

So, who goes home tonight?

Everyone agrees it should be Lazaro Arbos … if the decision is based solely on what we heard last night.

Once back-stories and fan favorites are taken into account, I have a feeling Paul Jolley might be the contestant singing for his life at the end of the show.

It won’t be fair, because he turned in what I thought was the best performance of the guys Wednesday night. But he also got the least favorable reviews from the judges.

Jimmy isn’t happy with some of the critiques from last night. Join the club, Jimmy.

He thought Kree did great last night.

He says Lazaro did the worst. And he says he worked with Lazaro on the song five days before the show, not the night before.

And the results begin …

* Paul Jolley is in the bottom three.

* Devin Velez: in the bottom three.

* Lazaro Arbos: is safe.

* Kree Harrison is safe.

* Candice Glover is safe.

* Angie Miller is safe.

* Janelle Arthur is safe.

* Burnell Taylor is safe.

* Amber Holcomb is in the bottom three.

And the person with the lowest number of votes is … Paul Jolley.

For the save, he’s going to sing Heart’s “Alone.” And this vocal isn’t going to do it.

Say bye-bye to Paul.