American Idol 2 Finalists’ CD Provokes Questions

The track listing for the upcoming American Idol 2: All-Time Classic American Love Songs is now available on Amazon.com. (Thanks to those of you who e-mailed that information to me.) The album is scheduled to be out on April 29. However, the track list provides a number of questions. First, let’s look at the list:

1. God Bless the USA - American Idol 10 Finalists Season 2
2. What The World Needs Now - American Idol 10 Finalists Season 2
3. Superstar - Studdard, Ruben
4. On The Wings of Love - Aiken, Clay
5. At Last - DeMato, Julia
6. Three Times A Lady - Grayson, Joshua
7. Let's Stay Together - Cobbins, Lashundra
8. Back at One - Smith, Rickey
9. Killing Me Softly With His Song - Caldwell, Kimberly
10. Open Arms - Clark, Corey
11. How Do I Live - Rasmusen, Carmen
12. Over The Rainbow - Locke, Kimberley
13. Overjoyed - American Idol 10 Finalists Season 2

The first question is if this is really the final track list, or if it is preliminary information that is still subject to change. Remember, we recently had some confusion with the charity CD single, and “What the World Needs Now Is Love” was actually listed as being available on Amazon for a little while before that was changed. Not to mention the number of times the date for Kelly Clarkson’s (and Justin Guarini’s) album debuts were changed.

This question especially comes to mind because Corey Clark has a song listed. It seems strange that producers would boot him off of the show but still keep him on the Top 10 album. Presuming the CDs have not already gone to press (or whatever the appropriate term is for getting CDs made), I strongly suspect his song will be removed.

But even his song provides us with another question. As you can see, the song listed for him is “Open Arms,” a Journey song that was actually performed on the show by Clay Aiken! Corey had performed “Foolish Heart” by Steve Perry (lead singer of Journey) in his semi-final round. So why the switch?

Some other questions revolve around just what a “classic love song” is. We already knew that “God Bless the U.S.A.” was going to be on this album even though it is not a love song. But what about Kimberley Locke’s “Over the Rainbow”? That certainly is a classic, but it is just as certainly not a love song. I know she likes the song, as evidenced by the number of times she sang it during auditions, but still.

Then again, considering the way producers have stretched the meaning of the terms “country-rock” and “disco” in previous weeks, it probably shouldn’t surprise anybody that they stretch the term “love song” as well.

We do see that the rumors of Vanessa Olivarez being absent from the album were true – as is Charles Grigsby. It appears that even though producers expanded the show to feature the top 12 in order to extend the show by a couple weeks, the album is still focusing solely on the top 10. No big conspiracies necessary to explain that (some had suggested that Vanessa was being excluded because her family had leaked information on the pasts of Trenyce and Corey to The Smoking Gun – though I never saw any actual evidence to support these claims). Incidentally, speaking of Trenyce, I do have to wonder why she is listed by her given name, Lashundra Cobbins, in the song list.

In any event, it is interesting to see that the finalists’ album this year is being released while the show is still airing. It will probably support sales, but I have to wonder if it will also affect the voting as people for the first time hear the contestants under the best of studio circumstances. Until we actually hear the CD, it will be difficult to say how much of a factor this might be.

We still have to wait a few weeks before that happens, though. Meanwhile, both Kelly Clarkson’s debut album, “Thankful,” and the CD-single of “God Bless the U.S.A.” are scheduled to be released on April 15, so we’ll have plenty to listen to. You can order any of these from Amazon.com by clicking below or in the right-hand column of this site.

God Bless The U.S.A. CD-single

David Bloomberg is the Editor of Foxes On Idol, and can be reached at rno@pobox.com.

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