The DJ who's not a DeeJay

I like making early picks on these reality tv shows. Even if they're still cutting down their current Top 46, I'd like to predict, Thaddeus Johnson as my early pick for Top 3 in Idol.

Out of all the auditions and even on Hollywood week, Thaddeus has caught my attention. His vocals are superb! He doesn't need to reach the highest of notes with his big solid voice cause his vocal range fits him perfectly. Check out his audition video of this 17 year old high school student from Oklahoma City and listen to his powerful rendition of Michael Jackson's Man In The Mirror. Oh and I hope his mom doesn't lose her voice cause she'll need to be cheering him on for a much longer time on Idol. Go Thaddeus !

You must be wondering why
1. I'm reviewing this 2004 album
2. Why I even have a copy

Well I saw it on sale for P25. (50 cents in USD) which is a 2-disc set including a 40 minute video with interviews, studio footage and surprises (as the label says). If you split the price into the 2 CDs, it's like 25 cents per CD. That's cheap ! So I figured what the hell. I'll take it.

Ok... from hereon then, I may be harsh, but that's how I see it.

I remember watching William Hung audition on Season 3 of American Idol and the judges' laughter which later transformed into respect for his positive outlook was a unique spectacle in American Idol history then.

Track 1, entitled "Words of Gratitude" is immediately a preface of William thanking the people for buying his CD. I took it more of a "no return, no refund" disclaimer and visualizing an evil image of William saying "I got your money sucker."

Track 2 moves to the Ricky Martin song, "She Bangs" as it was his signature song in the auditions.

Being a musical arranger, I cringe at the several instances of lack of timing. The off-key notes make my eyes squint in disbelief. I could imagine the studio engineer dropping all his mastery skills and just humbly accept that the songs were meant to be recorded this way. No attempt was made to digitally alter William's voice. It was recorded like that on purpose. I guess they want to capture William as he is and not as some celebrity-created persona which would be a twisted reality of William's actual talent.

I can't help but be disturbed by the mispronounciations of certain words (like pronouncing "singer" as "sing ger") but that's just me.



William chose some pretty difficult high-pitched songs. I was just looking at the song list and after seeing songs like "I Believe I Can Fly" and "Hotel California", I just had to exclaim to myself "Goodluck man". And I was right. A pitchy rendition of "I Believe I Can Fly" is an understatement. His pitch was all over the place. The last part had me hysterical as William tried to sustain some long notes without breathing and in the end obviously lost breath.

You know those times when you know you can't sing a high pitch yet attempt to do so in hopes of reaching it ? Well, William does that several times... and fails.

William kinda redeems himself in the upbeat tracks "YMCA" and "Shake Your Bon-bon". The backup singers render pretty decent vocals. As for William, well, the upbeat tempo and popularity of the 2 songs overshadows the remaining vocals owned by Hung.

Okey so right about now, you think I'm a bad guy for thrashing William Hung's album.
William's album did contain some redeeming factor and in fact much respect for the guy.

When you watch the 40 minute documentary, you'll find out the goodness in William, spreading a positive outlook no matter how many may laugh or ridicule him. For him, he enjoys singing and performing. So why would someone tell him otherwise ? A lot of interviews from his schoolmates at Berkley paint a better picture of William giving nothing but praises to the Chinese-American student.

In the end, you'll gain respect for this happy singer.

And then when you listen to the CD again, you'll laugh at it in a more positive note being less critical at the imperfections. You just have to accept the fact that this album doesn't intend to compete with any other great singers. It's just there to showcase William Hung and who he is. Have a sense of humor and you'll appreciate the album giving you a good laugh.

That's William Hung for you... an inspiration.

Season 7 of American Idol has just been fantastic. A lot of ups and downs for the contestants from audition to finale made enthusiastically me watch this season. We also have our 2 Pinoys Reynaldo Lapuz, who didn't make it through preliminary auditions but did make an impact for his white costume and original song "You Are My Brother". Then there's Ramiele Malubay, another Pinay, who made it to the Top 12.

But topping it all off and my bet from early on was David Cook. I have to admit I was blown away by all his own versions of the popular songs. The two songs that stood out for me were his version of Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby" and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean".

Congratulations to you David Cook ! I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing you more after American Idol.

Here's David Cook's commercial for the video game "Guitar Hero" doing a scene from the popular movie "Risky Business" which made Tom Cruise a star. I loved this solo performance of Tom in the movie and I equally think that David has made the same impact performance. Hoping David gets to that status as a rocker too.


Rock on David !

Update: For those who want to see how close to the original David Cook practiced his choreography, check out the original scene from "Risky Business" with a very young Tom Cruise.

I just finished watching American Idol a few minutes ago and I was blown away with the awesome performance of David Cook with his version of "Billie Jean".

Michael Jackson's song "Billie Jean" alone is a momentous chart blockbuster and one of my all-time favorite dance songs. Along with Michael's dance moves, including the brilliant moonwalk, I couldn't have visualized this song in a different genre other than a dance hit... until now.

David Cook's rock version of "Billie Jean" is simply amazing that I just had to blog about it (even if this is my 3rd post for the day).

Check it out.

The most recent episode of this season's American Idol auditions went out with a bang (or bang bang how you see it) with the last featured contestant.

Introducing Reynaldo Lapuz, 44, from Reno, Nevada. Before he even started singing, there was much to talk about him... his very white outfit, his original composition, and who could've missed the word "Simon" on his hat with wings. Somehow, he has the notion that Simon is God-sent for giving opportunity to people to sing. Hmmmm...



Yes, he's Filipino and made an impact on the show. William Hung may just have met his match.
I'm sure a couple of you guys acquired the LSS (Last Song Syndrome) from his song....

So without further ado, here are the lyrics:

I.
I am your brother
Your best friend forever
Singing the songs
The music that you like
Wohhhhhh

II.
Brothers till the end of time
Together or not
You're always in my heart
You hurt your feelings
And you will rain no more

Repeat I & II: (2x)

(Spoken) I love you brother

Repeat I & II (indefinitely)

If you can't get enough of Brother Rey, here are some photos from Kidd Kraddick in the morning radio show. Photos courtesy of Kidd Kraddick.


UPDATE:
I knew it was going to be the talk of the town for a while, but I didn't expect it to spread like a fire. I've seen a remixed version and some youtube imitations. Here's someone's tribute to Reynaldo. I am your BRRRAAAWWWDDDERRR !