Natalie Finn Thu Feb 28, 2:09 PM ET
Los Angeles (E! Online) - Those who regularly stepped out in platforms and bellbottoms during the disco era aren't the only ones trying to forget the 1970s.
The decade also proved a tough one for American Idol's top 20 contestants, most of whom couldn't have cracked through Simon Cowell's disdain with a jackhammer, what with all the pitch problems and "huh?" song choices.
And it only got worse on Thursday, when the elimination of another four contestants brought about far more on-camera tears than usual.
Jason Yeager, the singing waiter who crooned "Moon River" last week, did himself no favors by taking on the Doobie Brothers' "Long Train Runnin'," and he was the first to go.
The 28-year-old from Grand Prairie, Texas, whose problem, according to Simon, was that he was unable to distinguish himself from the pack, was spotted choking up during fellow castoff Alexandréa Lushington's swan song a few minutes later.
Lushington, who won over two out of three judges last week with her version of "Spinning Wheel," earned thumbs-down across the board Wednesday (although Paula's thumbs never point completely downward, of course) with Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now."
"A boring choice," Randy Jackson said, while Simon deemed the 17-year-old from Douglasville, Georgia, to be "struggling."
Apparently, voters agreed, as they tend to do with Simon, whose emphasis this season has been on the relevance of each contestant as a contemporary artist.
Alaina Whitaker, 16, also fell victim to the curse of the wrong song choice and was sent home third, despite some guarded praise after she crooned "Hopelessly Devoted to You."
"I like you," Simon said. "My problem is, it's almost as if your grandmother prepared you for this audition, told you what to wear, what to sing, how to do your hair."
"Sort yourself out, become relevant."
And the Tulsa, Oklahoma, beauty took it hard, prompting pep talks from both Paula Abdul and Ryan Seacrest about how proud she should be to have made it so far in the competition.
"I can't sing, this is so embarrassing," she sobbed, knowing Idol procedure called for an encore of Wednesday's performance. (She eventually came around, with her fellow contestants joining in.)
Last to go was 26-year-old Robbie Carrico of Melbourne, Florida, who admitted that "Hot Blooded" by Foreigner, which left his rock-and-roll credibility up in the air with the judges, may have been the wrong choice.
Which gave the rest of the guys and gals who fell flat–Jason Castro, Luke Menard, Danny Noriega, Amanda Overmyer, Syesha Mercado and Kady Malloy–a chance to regroup for next week, when they'll be asked to take on tunes from the 1980s. (Or, unofficially, one-hit wonder week.)
Turning it around this week were Brooke White (Simon "absolutely loved" her with-guitar version of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain") and Chikezie Ezie, who, clad in a far more muted outfit than last week's burnt-orange suit, sang Donny Hathaway's "I Believe," cleverly injecting his name into the lyrics.
"This is the guy we fell in love with!" raved Randy.
And although the teenagers are dropping like flies, Randy's opinion that the youngsters are the ones to beat still holds some water, at least, thanks to the consistently revelatory David Archuleta, who can do no wrong in the judges' eyes.
While they're usually quick to jump all over someone who takes on the most iconic of artists, the sweet-natured 17-year-old got away with John Lennon's "Imagine," with Paula going so far as to call it "one of the most moving performances I've ever heard."
Charmingly, Archuleta still managed to pull off looking stunned at the copious praise.
The Murray, Utah, native is far and away being touted as the one to beat this season, although Los Angeles Times pop music critic Ann Powers was quick to point out that Archuleta's artful "Imagine" arrangement was borrowed from late chanteuse Eva Cassidy, who died of cancer in 1996 at age 33.
The doe-eyed teen also sang the song when he was 13 during an appearance on the local program Good Things Utah, Powers reported.
But what Archuleta may have really sparked, besides the hearts of tweenage girls everywhere, is a yen for more tunes associated with the mop-tops from Liverpool.
And fans are in luck. When Idol's final 12 take the stage Mar. 11, they will sing music from the Beatles' hefty songbook, a coup the show has been trying to procure for seven years.
At last, producer Nigel Lythgoe announced Thursday, Sony/ATV Music Publishing has agreed to release the Lennon-McCartney canon, meaning the finalists will have free reign to take on anything penned by the duo, from "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" to "You Know My Name" (although even the Beatles weren't doing themselves any favors with that last one).
