Maybe “Salt of the Earth” would have been a more appropriate choice for a Rolling Stones song, but everyone’s favorite underdog Susan Boyle seems to have wowed the masses with her tasteful cover of the rock band’s “Wild Horses.”

The powerful ballad about love and loss is the first single from the British talent-show heroine’s upcoming debut album, and she previewed it for U.S. viewers during Wednesday’s episode of “America’s Got Talent.”

The “live” performance was actually taped the night before, according to the Los Angeles Times, which hailed it as “lovely, inspirational, free of surprises.” Then again, the paper said Boyle’s version lacked the original’s irony, although it’s not clear that there was any irony in the original.

The single version, with Boyle accompanied by a pianist, is perhaps more faithful to the restrained, elegiac tone of the original version. On TV, she unleashed her inner opera diva and also omitted the third verse, which contains the song’s most memorable line, “Let’s do some living after we die.”

If anyone stood to be offended it was picky fans of the Rolling Stones, but a survey of responses on the fan Web site It’s Only Rock’n Roll indicated near-unanimous approval. There was no immediate word from writers Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Jagger has said that Richards came up with the melody and the phrase “Wild Horses” and that he wrote the rest. The tune is a popular inclusion in the band’s set lists.

Boyle, meanwhile, is scheduled to release her album “I Dreamed a Dream” on Nov. 24 in the United States through Columbia Records. The shy, 48-year-old spinster rose to overnight worldwide fame in April, after tens of millions of people watched her bravura appearance on “Britain’s Got Talent.” Unable to deal with the sudden attention, Boyle was admitted to a London rehab clinic the next month to deal with anxiety.

She's odds-on favourite to win Saturday's final of "Britain's Got Talent," she's become an overnight international star and now she's started out on the trail to tabloid sainthood by acquiring her own headline moniker "SuBo."

But not everyone thinks Susan Boyle is a dead cert for the title. Singer Lily Allen for one thinks she's over-rated. "I thought her timing was off, no control, and I don't think she has an amazing voice," Allen said of Boyle's rendition on Sunday of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Memory" from the Cats musical.

Maybe there's a touch of over-exposure creeping in. Could the fable of the unlikely lass dragged away from West Lothian and thrust via the Internet into the world spotlight be starting to wear a little thin?

The competition is hot too. Dance acts Diversity and Flawless, singers Shaun Smith and Shaheen Jafargholi and even the Greek father and son combo Stavros Flatley have proved mighty popular with the phone-in viewers who have the ultimate say.

Do you think Boyle is going to win?

Scotland’s Susan Boyle left many viewers in Britain spellbound by her singing on a television talent show, but industry watchers say it’s the Internet that has turned her into an international phenomenon. She has ”clicked” with the online public at a record-setting pace, tracking firm Visible Measures said on Monday.

The latest numbers put Boyle at 103 million total video views on more than 20 different Web sites, said Matt Fiorentino, a spokesman for Visible Measures. 

It was only on April 11 that Boyle gained public attention with her performance on TV show “Britain’s Got Talent,” and Fiorentino said that Boyle has become the fastest growing Internet sensation his firm has ever seen.

Compare her numbers to another viral video sensation, the December incident of an Iraqi journalist throwing a shoe at former U.S. President George W. Bush, which had 21.4 million online video views in a week, Fiorentino said.

Clips of Boyle’s performance on “Britain’s Got Talent” have generated 91.6 million views to date, Visible Measures said. The rest of the online views have been for other material, such as Boyle’s 1999 rendition of “Cry Me a River,” interviews and fan videos.

By comparison, comedian Tina Fey’s impersonation of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on NBC sketch comedy show “Saturday Night Live” has generated 34.2 million views.

Boyle has yet to reach the Internet success of singer Mariah Carey’s “Touch My Body,” a video that has been seen 164 million times since it was posted online a little more than a year ago, according to Visible Measures.

Boyle, 47, is an unlikely pop star, with untamed hair and a plain-spoken manner. But none of that has blunted her online appeal.

“She’s definitely among the heavy hitters in viral video history,” Fiorentino said.

Photo: REUTERS/Ken McKay/talkbackTHAMES/Handout