I must admit that I like American Idol. It has its cheese but every year there are definitely a handful of top notch singers. Maybe some of the current radio “stars” should be on American Idol to see how they perform without the studio and vocal enhancers! But anyways, this year’s American Idol has some quality singers and this week David Cook’s performance of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean was the standout performance.
David’s performance of Billie Jean was creative, rocking, and nothing like the original. Thanks to a post below I was enlightened to the fact that David Cook’s Billie Jean sounded a lot like Chris Cornell’s version which can be heard below. Having spent my college years watching Singles and listening to Soundgarden’s Superunknown, I’ve been an admirer of Chris’ work from then, through his solo career and recently with his work with Audioslave. However I was not aware of his version of Billie Jean. Yes Chris Cornell has one of the most powerful voices in music. However, David Cook’s version of Billie Jean was almost as impressive and creative since he performed a version that probably 99% of the audience wasn’t aware of.
On top is David Cook’s Billie Jean video. Chris Cornell’s version of Billie Jean is below that. The original legendary video is at the bottom of this post. If you listen to Ryan Seacrest’s introduction to David Cook’s performance you’ll hear that he says “Chris Cornell’s version of Billie Jean.”
Of the three which one do you like the best? Leave your comments below!
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Rockphoria 