Fan Fare

It was Rolling Stones night on “American Idol”, and as Simon Cowell remarked at one point, lots of Stones fans would likely have turned off their TV sets (assuming they had been watching in the first place).

If wild horses hadn’t dragged you away in the first hour of  violin and soft  ballad versions of classic  hits like “Ruby Tuesday” and “Beast of Burden” ,  Tim Urban’s acoustic reggae treatment  of “Under My Thumb” was by far the strangest.  “Very bizarre,” said Randy Jackson. Even good-natured Ellen DeGeneres could muster nothing more encouraging than, “It didn’t wow me.”.

Urban said he knew he was taking a risk but realized he could never sound or look like a member of the Stones.

Siobhan Magnus and Crystal Bowersox didn’t look or sound like Mick Jagger either. But Magnus’s dramatic version of “Paint It, Black”  had echoes of Adam Lambert and was judged one of the standout performances of the night. 

Bowersox had shades of Janis Joplin and Joss Stone in her performance of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” but the dreadlocked young mom has already emerged as such a solid favorite that a good performance is no longer good enough for the judges.

But given the shaky start to this season since the would-be Idols reached the studio,  the Stones fared better than many skeptics might have expected in the hands of  the Top 12. Teen Katie Stevens redeemed her controversial place in the pack, Lacey Brown got the better of her nerves, and young hearthrob Aaron Kelly, 16, cracked the biggest challenge of them all — picking the right song (“Angie”).

 And what’s up with Simon? Gone was  the usual dark t-shirt or sweater,  and in was a v-necked long cardigan (!) over a white t-shirt? And has he gone soft? Barely a sarcastic quip or harsh word on Tuesday night.  “It didn’t work”  was about as bad as it got.