by David McAlpine

Last night on American Idol, it was Carole King night. The music icon has been making songs for 50 years, and she recently celebrated 40 years since her breakout album "Tapestry."

Now, tonight, the Idols get to celebrate her legacy with songs from her famous repertoire, either ones she sang or wrote. In addition, this week was the first week each contestant got to sing a solo and a duet with another contestant.

On tap to help the contestants is R&B singer-songwriter Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who is well versed in Carole King's songs. The performances were as follows:

Contestant: Jacob Lusk
Song: "Oh No, Not My Baby"

Jacob looked, well, interesting for the first song of the night. It was almost distracting really…like borderline "I'm much too old for what I'm wearing," so it was hard for me to listen to him singing. When I did listen to him, though, he was really singing from the heart. It may not have been good, but it was from the heart. Steven Tyler tried to cushion the blow, but Randy was honest: Jacob is in trouble. *Big* trouble

Contestant: Lauren Alaina
Song: "Where You Lead"

Lauren is one of only two contestants so far who hasn't been in the final three. She's cute and she's sweet, so it's natural that we all love her--so when you could see the look of fear in her eyes, I was concerned. Could Lauren pull off all these big notes? Babyface tried to push her, but it wasn't until *Miley Cyrus* (of all people) comes in and tells her to ignore all the negative comments (which I'm sure she has a lot of experience doing). So what does Lauren do? Hell, she goes for the high note--and cracks. She sings to a boy on stage, though, and gets major props for going for the note, anyway.

Contestants: Haley Reinhart & Casey Abrams
Song: "I Feel The Earth Move"

In the first duet on this season, I was surprised at how well they handled it. I mean, it didn't hurt that Haley looked smoking hot and it was a song that most people can sing in a good karaoke session, but they still did a really good job. Cue Randy to make some awkward comments a) about Haley's dress and/or body and Casey's attraction to her. Comments about the singing? Oh yeah, well there was that, too, but Haley looked great!

Contestant: Scotty McCreery
Song: "You've Got A Friend"

At the beginning, I could barely make out the words he was saying. I challenge a dog to make out those lyrics, they were that quiet. However, it got quite strong at the end, which really blew me away. It blew the judges away, too. It drew some criticism, but also some serious praise, especially from Steven Tyler. Jennifer Lopez even said he was telling a story, which he really took to heart.

Contestant: James Durbin
Song: "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?"

James' assessment of Scotty I found both endearing and a little bit over the line. I mean get that he only means the best, but I feel like he's nearing the slimy, "I'll do anything to have fans" bit and it's really starting to turn me off of him. I mean, taking the suggestions of the fans for your song? Yeah, that's a good strategy, but still…I just think that's going too far to risk your musical career. Anyway, he starts off the song a cappella and proves that he really can do pretty much anything with his voice. It's rocker, it's raw and it's amazing. So good, in fact, that he got the judges' gold seal of approval to win the whole competition.

Contestants: Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina
Song: "Up On The Roof"

For the previous duet with Haley and Casey, there were a lot of "Sonny and Cher" references. There were a lot of "they're in love" jokes. Well, if you slap a cowboy hat on all of those and called them country…you would get Scotty and Lauren. Again, Ryan joked that they're dating, and again, they crooned in a slightly sharp/slightly flat combo that was, eerily, reminiscent of Sonny and Cher. Weird.

Contestant: Casey Abrams
Song: "Hi-De-Ho (That Old Sweet Rock and Roll)"

The other day, I had an interesting conversation with some Idol fans. One was a diehard Casey Abrams fan who thought it was a travesty when he was put in danger by the American public and it was "clearly obvious" that he should have been saved. The other, a Pia Toscano fan who hates Casey because he took what "should have been Pia's save." Which brings me to my point: people either really like Casey or they don't, so he needs to sing his butt off every week to get to the end. And this week was not the week where he did that. He danced awkwardly, snarled during the entire song and didn't seem to have any sense of performance. Randy called him "entertaining," but it seemed like it was because he couldn't think of a better word. All I could think was that Jacob must be happy that he's got competition for the bottom two this week.

Contestant: Haley Reinhart
Song: "Beautiful"

Haley has been a fairly solid performer all season, but there was something unseasoned about her that was always slightly unsettling. She looked really polished in rehearsal, but then potential disaster struck: her in-ear monitors weren't working. But that didn't phase her: she dove into it and she went for it. I actually really enjoyed her voice, and she looked bangin'. The best part? She *impressed* the judges. She didn't make them happy, she *impressed* them.

Contestants: Jacob Lusk and James Durbin
Song: "I'm Into Something Good"

For the final performance of the night, it's was, oh, only the third song I recognized? Not going to lie, I felt a little out of my element when it came to this theme, as I'm sure about 80% of this audience is, too. Regardless, it was whatever--nothing lost, nothing gained.

As for this week's bottom three, I'm going to go with Jacob, Casey and a random third--at this point, America has proven their voting to be fairly sporadic.

American Idol airs Wednesdays at 8/7c and Thursdays at 9/8c on FOX.

(Photo courtesy of FOX)

Follow David on Twitter: @DavidMcAlpine