American Idol.......Senior!

Well, it’s American Idol time again, which always makes me wonder what I would sing if I were to audition for American Idol, and what Simon’s, Paula’s and Randy’s reactions would be to me.

The three songs I usually play around with when I’m daydreaming about Idol are Feelin’ Groovy, by Simon & Garfunkel; an excerpted version of Over the Rainbow; and There’s Always Tomorrow, from the Christmas classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (for those of you who are not Rudolph fanatics, this is the song that the girl fawn Clarisse sings to Rudolph after he’s been out of the reindeer games). I like Feelin’ Groovy because I think you can have fun with it – dressing up to fit the song, gestures/movement while singing, altering the lyrics (e.g., instead of “hello, lamppost…”, you could do “hello, Simon…[or Paula or Randy]”). Over the Rainbow is just a good song for showing range and control (but I definitely sing it at a lower key than Judy Garland!), though there are also great opportunities for showing expression in both your voice and face. There’s Always Tomorrow, in terms of auditioning, is much like Over the Rainbow, but a little easier to sing and, of course, not so well-known (comparison to someone of the caliber of Judy Garland not being a good thing…). But I also just plain love the song, love the lyrics.

This is all, of course, just plain daydreaming. But I think it would be fun if they did an American Idol Senior once (remember, they did a Junior show one year, so the precedence is there). The auditions would probably be just as entertaining as the current show – if you think some of those teens and twenty-something-year-olds are clueless about their real abilities, and upset about being rejected, just imagine how some 30- or 40- or 50-year-olds, who think they were robbed of their dreams in the past, would react. Think about it – people still rave over the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney, and they’re in their 60s, so why not an American Idol Senior?