In the past week, it had also crossed my mind several times that I don't know very many Anne Murray songs, aside from "Snowbird" and "Could I Have This Dance?". In fact, the only actual lyrics to an Anne Murray song that I could even come close to remembering were from the song "Hey Daddy", a song I listened to quite a bit as a kid on my parents' record player, from her children's album Hippo In My Tub:
Hey Daddy, there's a dragon in the driveway.
Mamma, there's a grizzly on the lawn.
You better come quick ‘cause there’s a hippo in the bathtub
And it's going down the drain, oh no its gone!
So imagine my surprise and excitement when I realized that Drew Wright was performing that song last night on the Idol stage!
It was a big risk for Drew, considering it was a children's song, but he did an awesome job, and really was the only one who drew resounding praise from the judges for his take on an Anne Murray song.
I give Drew big props, also, for choosing a song that was uniquely "Anne". The others managed to wiggle around it by doing songs that she covered, but were made famous by other artists. (Earl sang "Killing Me Softly", done by a million different artists, including the Fugees; Mitch performed "Cotton Jenny", originally done by Gordon Lightfoot; Theo chose to do "You Don't Know Me", also done by a bunch of other artists, but he was actually more in the Michael Buble/Harry Connick Jr. style.)
Yep. I connected with Drew last night. I imagined him feeling the same sentimental, youthful delight that I do when I think of that song. The big smile on his face as he sat on his stool and played his guitar - well, he completely won me over. I think I might actually be rooting for him now, even though I still think Theo should win the competition, based on his consistency and his ability to dazzle the judges every single week.
Speaking of Theo - he was the one who clearly won the second round of last night's show, when the Idols got to choose their own songs. He performed Gavin DeGraw's "Chariot", back behind his piano, and, actually, he eventually jumped on top of the piano. It was a rocking, energized performance, and he definitely ended the show on a high note.
Aside from those two performances, I think Zack put it best when he said he thought they all had the yips last night. I thought Earl had his worst night yet, and Mitch did absolutely nothing to impress me (money's on him to go home tonight).
But it was still worth sitting down and watching last night. If for no other reason, Drew singing "Hey Daddy" and transporting me back to my childhood made it all worthwhile. And with that silly little kids song, he became my frontrunner to win the whole damned thing.
