TVSquad

I don't pretend to understand the motivation of the American Idol voters, but after watching last night's performances by the Final Four, I'm convinced that Kris Allen is going to be the odd man/singer out tonight. It's not that Kris was the poorest performance; I agree with Kona that Danny's "Dream On" was a bit of a nightmare. No, Kris will be done in because he chose the wrong Beatle song.

Rock night on American Idol, with Guns 'n Roses' Slash of all artists as a mentor, was bound to fall on the hard end of the rock spectrum. That did not suit Kris's mellow music man vibe at all. If he wanted to impress the judges -- and win over the fans -- he would have been better off going against the grain and not trying to compete with the heavy duty rock star wannabes on the show.

That meant don't try to be like Adam, and you didn't stand a chance channeling Heart or Janis Joplin like Allison could. Danny, like I wrote a few weeks back, has been very confident (bordering on over-confident), so there was no way he was going to sing something in the smooth rock vein, let alone a ballad. That left Kris with a chance to create some contrast and, thus, emerge as one of the more viable finalists.

His instinct to do a Beatles' song was on target. But he chose the wrong Beatle. He went with John Lennon instead of Paul McCartney (or George Harrison even). Rather than sing a catchy tune like "Come Together," which has an inane Lennon lyric that cannot be taken literally let alone sung with any conviction because it's nonsense, Kris should have taken a chance with "Something" or "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (the George songs). Or, if he still wanted to go out rocking, Paul's "Lady Madonna" or from the Wings' era, the bombastic "Live and Let Die." That would have knocked some socks off, because that's the kind of song it is. Even "Hey Jude" would have worked for Kris.

Tonight, unless I'm wrong, Kris will be sent home, leaving Danny, Adam and Allison. It's a shame, too, because if he had trusted his gut and looked in the mirror, he would have seen that his best move would have been emulating the cute Beatle. Sir Paul's made a career of being the cute one.