American Idol Top 6 April 24 & 25, 2007 Theme : Inspirational Songs. It’s also Idol Gives Back week with a whole lot of guests from Kelly Clarkson to Annie Lennox. Spoiler Alert!

Click here to download the MP3 of Blake Lewis, Jordin Sparks, Melinda Doolittle, Lakisha Jones, Chris Richardson & Phil Stacy current and past performances.

***********Spoiler Alert**************

The show was pre-taped yesterday with Bono of U2 mentoring the Idols. More Details below…..

1. Chris Richardson “Change The World” by Eric Clapton



2. Melinda Doolittle “There Will Come A Day” by Faith Hill



3. Blake Lewis “Imagine” by John Lennon



4. LaKisha Jones “I Believe” Season 3 coronation song



5. Phil Stacey “The Change” by Garth Brooks



6. Jordin Sparks “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from the musical “Carousel”

There are two phone numbers for each contestant:

1. 1 and 7 – Chris Richardson
2. 2 and 8 – Melinda Doolittle
3. 3 and 9 – Blake Lewis
4. 4 and 10 – LaKisha Jones
5. 5 and 11 – Phil Stacey
6. 6 and 12 – Jordin Sparks

The phone lines will be opened for 4 hours tonight instead of 2.

“American Idol” will raise the dead on Wednesday and feature a performance with Celine Dion and … Elvis Presley?! Also many portion of the Wednesday Idol Gives Back special was pre-taped days ahead so this could be AI’s most boring or anti-climactic show ever produced. Newscorp,  Fox parent company could have easily given out the 5 million dollars without asking their viewers to vote but then again, its PR marketing  for a season with a dwindling audience.

While “A.I.” teased their “Idol Gives Back” charity benefit by revealing that “two of the biggest stars in musical history come together,” sources at last week’s taping tell TMZ that Celine sang Elvis Presley’s hit, “If I Can Dream”.

Celine Dion is singing with a virtual Elvis Presley — in the vein of Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable.”

At the taping, the remaining “Idol” wannabes also sang with Celine and Elvis, but as backup in the choir. Hallelujah!

“Idol Gives Back” will help raise money to fight extreme poverty in the U.S. and Africa, and feature artists like Gwen Stefani, Pink, IL Divo and Josh Groban.

Ryan Seacrest won’t be alone as Ellen De Generes will also co-host the Idol Gives back Wednesday 2 hour show.

Natasha Bedingfield “I Wanna Have Your Babies” new single worldwide but not yet available here in US until August

Link to Natasha Bedingfield’s New Video not available here in the US

Link to download an MP3 of her new single “I Wanna Have Your Babies”

American Idol Top 7 April 17 & 18 , 2007 Country Themed Week featuring Martina McBride as mentor and performer

American Idol Top 7

Click here the download an MP3 of Blake Lewis, Jordin Sparks & Melinda Doolittle current performances.

American Idol Top 8 April 10 & 11, 2007 Theme: Latin Music with guest mentor Jennifer Lopez

Click here the download an MP3 of Blake Lewis, Jordin Sparks & Melinda Doolittle.

Mary Schmich Chicago Tribune Essay 10th Anniversary also the inspiration for Baz Luhrmann “Everyone’s Free To Wear Suncreen”. Interestingly that song was sort of a cover version of Rozilla “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”

Listen & download MP3 Spoof of Yoda’s  Everybody’s Free To Wear Sunscreen

June 1, 2007 marks the 10th Anniversary of Mary Schmich essay published in The Chicago Tribune. In her introduction to the column, she described it as the commencement address she would give if she were asked to give one. When the column became the song, her wish came true as at Zagreb’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing the song Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) is played at every graduation ceremony.

The song features a spoken-word track set over a mellow backing track. Contrary to popular belief the essay is not read by Baz Luhrmann, on the track; it is narrated by Australian voice actor Lee Perry. The chorus is sung by Quindon Tarver.

The song lyrics, which consist of a litany of humorous but practical advice, were drawn word for word from the Schmich column except for a date change from “‘97″ to “‘99″ – although an early version has been found with the original line of “Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ‘97″ still in place.

The song is a remix of “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)” performed by Quindon Tarver in Luhrmann’s 1996 film William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet. The melody of the backing track can be heard being sung by a choir during the wedding scene. “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)” and conseqeuntly “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” seem to be some sort of a cover version of Rozalla’s 1991 hit single “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)” as all three songs share the same writers, Tim Cox and Nigel Swanston, published by Peermusic Ltd. I will try to dig up my copies of old AT40 on my archives and will post a link to Rozalla song and Baz Luhrmann song, and see how they would sound side by side.     

This year also marks the return of the song with a new 2007 version included in the 10th anniversary soundtrack of Romeo & Juliet.

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• PersianDNA: The video, streaming audio, lyrics, and a parody of the song

Parodies

• Piled Higher and Deeper strip The PhD comic strip that parodies “Wear Sunscreen.”

Mary Schmich’s columns in the Chicago Tribune includes archive, biography and story collections

Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young The “wear sunscreen” column.

IFILM – Shorts: Yoda’s Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen

Sunscreen Movie – Treasure life’s Moments* Short film based on on the column by Mary Schmich and Baz Luhrmann

[View Full film Here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY_GyyvsHbM] A Great Short Film Spoof!

American Idol Top 9 April 3 & 4, 2007 Theme: Music from Tony Bennett