We'll Be The Judge of That! - Hit Me Baby 1 More Time, June 30

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 – Juice Newton, Animotion, Shannon, PM Dawn, and Missing Persons. 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?

Juice Newton, “Queen of Hearts” and “Pieces of Me”

David: Over the course of this series, I’ve noticed that the women seem to age better than the men. That was the case again here with Juice Newton. Don’t get me wrong, she’s no spring chicken, but she didn’t look like a middle-aged accountant on karaoke night like so many of the men. She still looked like she could put on a show – and more importantly, she sounded like it. While “Queen of Hearts” is not exactly a vocally-challenging song, she sang it like a champ. Very nice.

Juice’s second performance was very good. She really ripped into “Pieces of Me” and showed that she definitely still has a voice. Color me impressed.

Mike: There was something very much missing from the performance. My girlfriend thinks it was the keyboards. Even though they were there, we couldn’t hear them. I think the sound mix was way off. Either way, it was a decent performance. It wouldn’t send me out screaming to the music store, but I didn’t hate it either.

And again, for the second song. It wasn’t horrible, I just wasn’t into it at all.

Animotion, “Obsession” and “Days Go By”

David: Interesting – I don’t remember the song, “Obsession,” but I do remember the video. I wonder what that means in the grand scheme of things. Anyway, remember what I just said regarding the women aging better than the men? Animotion is the exception to the rule, because the male lead singer definitely looked better than the female lead singer. I don’t know who she’d have to be to make someone want to sleep with her! Yikes. Frankly, she looked a bit scary. As for how they sounded, I would say that individually they were okay, but they did not harmonize very well on the chorus portions they sang together.

The female lead singer didn’t get any less scary in the second performance. I’ve got to say that the guy could still really sing, and he carried the day. But she impressed me even less the second song.

Mike: I always liked the techno movement, but I think once Max Headroom had a hit record, it was all downhill. I also don’t think there should be more people WITHOUT instruments on stage than with. Which explains why I hate most current music, actually. As for the performance, the sound was horribly screwed up again, and it didn’t help an already mediocre performance.

Maybe they did a better job when the sound was messed up (which I assume was fixed at the first commercial break, I dunno). I wasn’t impressed in the slightest – I want to say it’s a bad junior high chorus, but I’ve heard some good choruses. My girlfriend suggests that it sounded like a bad garage band. I think we’ll go with that.

Shannon, “Let the Music Play” and “Foolish”

David: With Shannon we were definitely back to the women aging better than the men. Unfortunately, her voice did not age as well as the rest of her. She barely sounded like she was singing – more like she was reading the lines. She sounded best when her voice was overshadowed in the chorus by the backup singers – that is not a ringing endorsement. And why did I get the feeling that when she yelled out to the audience, “What’s my name?” most of the kids there had no freaking idea and probably couldn’t have cared less.

Shannon’s voice was significantly better in her second performance. I’m not sure what to make of that – she was better singing somebody else’s song than her own? Weird. But there you have it.

Mike: OK, does ANYONE on stage have an instrument? I guess the actual, you know, music isn’t as important as idiots with lingerie jumping around while singers give themselves black eyes with their cleavage? I definitely wasn’t impressed by what I heard, although I was definitely distracted by the freak show.

Now this setup is more like it. Pity her voice didn’t measure up to the requirements of a song like this. Not that she did most of the singing (on either song) anyway.