We'll Be The Judge of That! - Hit Me Baby 1 More Time, June 23

NBC brings us a blast from the past, putting the spotlight back on five acts who were popular but have been out of the public eye – Greg Kihn, Club Nouveau, Glass Tiger, Billy Vera, and Thelma Houston. Each artist performed their biggest hit and a cover of a popular current tune.

What do our judges – David Bloomberg and Mike DeGeorge - have to say?

Greg Kihn, “The Breakup Song” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”

David: Greg has put on a few pounds and lost a bit of voice, but I enjoyed hearing the song again. As he said, “they don’t write ‘em like that anymore.” I don’t think this will spark a return to the charts for Greg, but it was a fun trip back in time.

I’ve got to give him points for ballsiness in tackling a Green Day song for his cover. What’s funny is that I think he pulled it off! It was definitely fun to watch.

Mike: No “Jeopardy”? As David Spade would say, pure balls, and I’m not talking about the Green Day song, David. The band looked like the Accounting department at the company picnic, especially George Costanza there on bass. Every week, there seems to be one act who are just embarrassing to watch – welcome to the club, Greg.

The Green Day cover was… well, it was like a bunch of middle-aged men trying to cover a current rock song. I mean, how else can you describe it? Plus, during both performances, it looked like Kihn was barely playing. There’s been talk of backing tracks during this show, and I think they did nothing to dispel those rumors.

Club Nouveau, “Lean on Me” and “Thank You”

David: Club Nouveau was one of the few groups we have seen on Hit Me Baby that could just have easily arrived today on the pop charts. Their harmonies weren’t perfect, but their individual voices still carried the day. Good job.

Their second performance supported my statement that they could have arrived on the charts today. It was not my favorite song, but they did a good job with it.

Mike: I thought David was going to go ballistic at the start of this song, with them telling the crowd to “come on!” and all. They started off pretty rocky, and got better as the song went along. But, as my girlfriend’s son said, they’re not hitting the harmonies and someone was flat. It was a nice, enjoyable performance, but nothing very memorable in the slightest.

Second verse, same as the first. Very pleasant, soothing, sweet performance. But it was uninspiring background music.

Glass Tiger, “Don’t Forget Me When I’m Gone” and “Everything you Want”

David: Sorry, I already forgot them. Yeah, easy joke, I know. Anyway, as to the performance, I think my wife put it well when she said, “That’s the guy who sings this song?” He looked more like a lounge singer than a rock star. The performance was, well, forgettable.

In their second performance, I still had trouble taking the lead singer seriously, looking the way he did. But he seemed to fit into this song better than the first. And, overall, I thought the second performance was better. Not great, but better.

Mike: And yet another one prompting the audience. Have they not seen this show? The audience is going to dance around to carnival music! Half the crowd looked bored, though, and I was right along with them, trying to figure out which movie this song was from. All of the ‘80s movies, I think. This guy’s “whoo-ing” at the end was just pathetic. Bold prediction: they won’t win.

Along the same lines as Greg Kihn’s cover, this one sounded like a good song covered by a feather-light pop band. And he REALLY needs to stop the “whoo!” at the end. Yee-uck.

Billy Vera, “At This Moment” and “True”

David: Billy Vera looked a bit old in his “then” video, and now he looks positively ancient. Sorry, but I gotta call ‘em as I see ‘em. But no matter what he looked like, his voice was still that of a young man. It was a very nice, mellow performance.

Billy definitely looked better when he was behind the piano than at center-stage. I also think he sounded better in the first performance. Another mellow performance, but not nearly as good.