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Ground Control To Major Bowes: Not The Original Amateur Hour

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Today’s theme at Song Lyric Sunday is about songs by performers on American Idol.

In case you’re wondering about the title of today’s post, The Original Amateur Hour began on radio in 1934 as “Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour”  and ran until the 1946 death of its creator, Major Bowes. Ted Mack, a talent scout who had directed the show under Bowes, revived it in 1948 for ABC Radio and the DuMont Television Network. The show lasted on radio until 1952 and until 1970 on television, where it ran on all four major networks, ending as a Sunday afternoon CBS staple. A success in the early days of television, the program set the stage for numerous programs seeking talented stars, from The Gong Show to Star Search to American Idol to America’s Got Talent. 

On June 11, 2002 a new type of TV show aired. Some called it reality TV while others dubbed it a talent show; critics and TV executives alike said it was “unparalleled in broadcasting history …. the most impactful show in the history of television”. As a lover of music and talent and competition, which is what this show was all about, I called it fabulous! For 15 years my husband and I watched together each week as contestants auditioned, performed and were either sent on to the next round or sent packing.

The show, of course is American Idol and the only reason we stopped watching regularly after 15 years was our overall dislike of the new panel of judges. After 22 years, the show is still alive and well and making Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest a ton of money! Here’s something you may not know!

Idol has spawned 345 Billboard chart-toppers and a platoon of pop idols while remaining a TV ratings institution. For an unprecedented eight consecutive years, from the 2003-04 television season through the 2010-11 season, either its performance show or results show was ranked #1 in US television ratings – not bad at all for a little talent show.

While there are many American Idol winners who have gone on to become major music stars, I have often felt not winning (while spirit-crushing at the time) was just the impetus a young singer needed to become a household name; Adam Lambert, Jennifer Hudson, Katharine McPhee, Chris Daughtry, Clay Aiken and Kelly Pickler are perfect examples of artists whose loss on Idol was exactly what they needed to jumpstart their careers. Such is the case for my featured performer today, one of my personal favorite also-rans from American Idol.

Haley Reinhart first rose to prominence after placing third in the 10th season of American Idol. In July 2011, Reinhart signed a recording deal with Interscope Records. Her debut album, Listen Up!, was released on May 22, 2012, to critical acclaim and she subsequently became the first AI alumna to perform at Lollapalooza. She is the only Season 10 contestant who has over one million views on six of her YouTube performance videos: her renditions of Adele’s “Rolling In the Deep”, Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets”, Ben E. King’s “I (Who Have Nothing)” and her version of “House of the Rising Sun”. In addition, her performance of Billie Holiday’s “God Bless The Child” hit one million views in March 2014 and the video of her American Idol audition performance of the Beatles’ “Oh! Darling” also reached one million views in March 2016. Reinhart was the only contestant in Season 10 who received three standing ovations from the judges in consecutive weeks for “House of the Rising Sun”, “I (Who Have Nothing)” and Led Zeppelin’s “What Is and What Should Never Be”.

Haley Reinhart garnered widespread recognition in 2015 for performing and touring with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, my favorite part of her career so far. Her most notable collaboration with the band on a jazz cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” spent 58 consecutive weeks on Billboard’s Jazz Digital Songs chart and received high praise from critics. In the same year, she gained additional notice when her cover of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love” which was used in a television commercial, became a viral sensation, peaked at #16 on the US Adult Contemporary chart and was later certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on July 31, 2023. Reinhart won a Cannes Lion for Entertainment and a Clio Award for the song in 2016. Additionally, she made her voice acting debut as Bill Murphy in the Netflix animated comedy, “F Is For Family” on December 18, 2015. She reprised the role as a main cast member in the series’ second, third, fourth, and fifth seasons.

Let’s get back to “Bennie and Jets”. E! Online ranked Reinhart’s cover of as the series’ 14th best performance. TVLine ranked the performance as the 6th best in Idol history and BuzzFeed ranked it 1st on their list of the “17 Most Iconic American Idol Performances of All Time.”

I’ve never really cared for “Bennie and the Jets” but what do I know?! Since Haley Reinhart’s performance garnered so much praise and coverage, I’m featuring it today. You’ll see the judges thought it was ”A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!”

Live from American Idol’s results night, this is Haley Reinhart with “Bennie and the Jets”.

LYRICS

Hey kids, shake it loose together
The spotlight’s hitting something
That’s been known to change the weather
We’ll kill the fatted calf tonight
So stick around
You’re gonna hear electric music
Solid walls of sound

Say, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet
Ohh, but they’re so spaced out, B-b-b-b Bennie and the Jets
Oh but they’re weird and they’re wonderful
Oh Bennie she’s really keen
She’s got electric boots a mohair suit
You know I read it in a magazine
Oh oh, B-b-b-b Bennie and the Jets
Bennie, Bennie and the Jets

Hey kids, plug into the faithless
Maybe they’re blinded
But Bennie makes them ageless
We shall survive, let us take ourselves along
Where we fight our parents out in the streets
To find who’s right and who’s wrong

Say, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet
Ohh, but they’re so spaced out, B-b-b-b Bennie and the Jets
Oh but they’re weird and they’re wonderful
Oh Bennie she’s really keen
She’s got electric boots a mohair suit
You know I read it in a magazine
Oh oh, B-b-b-b Bennie and the Jets
Bennie, Bennie and the Jets

Hey kids, plug into the faithless
Maybe they’re blinded
But Bennie makes them ageless
We shall survive, let us take ourselves along
Where we fight our parents out in the streets
To find who’s right and who’s wrong

Say, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet
Ohh, but they’re so spaced out, B-b-b-b Bennie and the Jets
Oh but they’re weird and they’re wonderful
Oh Bennie she’s really keen
She’s got electric boots a mohair suit
You know I read it in a magazine
Oh oh, B-b-b-b Bennie and the Jets
Bennie, Bennie, Bennie, Bennie and the Jets
Bennie and the Jets

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Bernie Taupin / Elton John
Bennie and the Jets lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

This is Haley Reinhart performing “Oh! Darling”, her audition for American Idol. Steven Tyler is obviously a fan!

And here is Haley the way I like her best .… singing Radiohead’s “Creep” with Postmodern Jukebox.

Shaping Music Trends

Big thanks to Jim for hosting another great Song Lyric Sunday and for allowing be to take up residence here for the last 10 weeks. I had a great time coming up with the themes but even I got tired of seeing my name week after week on Jim’s SLS posts, I can just imagine how you feel!

Thanks for stopping by. See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2024

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.

31 thoughts on “Ground Control To Major Bowes: Not The Original Amateur Hour”

  1. Very good choice for the theme and for this artist. She sure can sing! I do enjoy PMJ and all the singers and styles, so I’m happy she got to sing with them, too.

    Thanks, Nancy, for all the fun topics these past weeks. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Oh, I agree! PMJ is such a different group with talented young people; Haley fit right into that group and did an excellent job. Their performances are always top notch.

      I really had fun helping out on SLS. When I proposed a group of theme suggestions to Jim, I had no idea he was going to use all of them! It was fun but now it’s someone else’s turn.

      Thanks so much; I appreciate your comments.

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  2. I love Haley Reinhart. I first heard her cover of Creep with PMJ. I played for family members who I know wouldn’t appreciate the original version and they loved her version. I had no idea she was on American Idol. Great choice!

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  4. Kellie Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and others have done pretty well. Adam Lambert is now of course. the voice of Queen. In recent years we’ve been able to watch it in the UK thanks to Netflix, and I quite enjoyed it. Haley Reinhart singing Creep is brilliant – expletives deleted! Her scat singing towards the end is awesome!

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    1. Haley’s a very talented young woman and I am quite impressed with her. I also thought her scat was fantastic. Postmodern Jukebox is a cool group. I saw them a couple of times in Boston and was never disappointed. They’re a talented bunch of young people.

      Thanks, Keith.

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  5. I’ve only watched this show a handful of times, and it happened that the times I did I found the judges mean!
    This was an amazing performance. Every time I hear Benny and the Jets, it reminds me of the first few times I heard it on the radio thinking “what to hell did he just say???”

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    1. I never really took the time to analyze the song or even read the lyrics until I started working on this post. Unless I’m dense (which is always a possibility) I don’t know any more about this song today than I did last week. 😂

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  7. Haley Reinhart has a wonderful smile and I loved watching her sing. I never watched American Idol and after reading your post and learning about your passion about this show, I can see what it is so popular. Great choice for your performer today, Nancy.

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  8. Thanks for all of your prompts over the past ten weeks. As I’ve said to you, and have mentioned in today’s post, this one was extremely difficult for me, as I haven’t liked any of these shows going right back to the UK’s Pop Idol, which was the ‘inspiration’ for the American version. Yup – blame us!

    I have hardly heard of any of American Idol’s participants, including Haley Reinhart. Sorry, but this is why I don’t like these shows: inferior covers of what started out as great songs!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Helping out on SLS was a lot of fun for me and I thank Jim for giving me the chance to put in my two cents.

      If I may play devil’s advocate for one minute, Clive ….. you said “but this is why I don’t like these shows: inferior covers of what started out as great songs!” In all fairness to these shows and especially the contestants, what choice do they have while auditioning other than to sing someone else’s songs? I’ve yet to see someone audition by performing their own material.

      Since you have never watched, there’s no way you could know that the songs the contestants perform on the show are not of their own choosing. They are given a list of popular, well-known songs to choose from. Often there will be a specific theme, such as Elton John Night or songs from movies; there again, they have to choose from already well-known songs.

      Shows like these have been the springboard for many now-established musical performers who wouldn’t have gotten a chance otherwise.

      Obviously, I have watched quite a bit of American Idol! 😂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I’d watch a show where the contestants sang original songs, either their own or someone else’s, as I think that would be truer to the spirit of real music than these over-hyped, artificial extravaganzas.

        I may not have watched but when my daughters were younger they loved the X Factor, and from my seat in the dining room reading the paper I heard a lot of them, enough to know it wasn’t for me.

        Liked by 1 person

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        1. Oh, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not trying to convert you to Idolatry! I’m just explaining what the rules are. I’ve heard more than enough screechers to know the show isn’t for everyone.

          We don’t watch any longer but I hear from family members that it’s good. I’m over it.

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  11. Hi Nancy thank you so much for your amazing prompts from the last ten weeks it’s been a blast!

    Well you certainly set us a task this week especially those of us who are not American. I have to admit that though I have heard of American Idol it’s not on over here so I know very little about it. So I spent a lot of time trawling Google and YouTube? I have heard of some of the artists but not associated them with the show. Anyhow it’s good to learn and not grow stagnant.

    Love your choice of Hayley she has a brilliant voice. Again well done you 💜💜💜🙂

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    1. Hey, Willow! You make an excellent point! I didn’t think about American Idol not being aired outside the US (or at least not in the UK). I guess I’m so accustomed to seeing a lot shows on the BBC here in the states, I didn’t give it a second thought. In hindsight, we should have expanded the theme to include all the Idols as the franchise arm does stretch rather far.

      That said, I’m curious as to whether you’re familiar with some of the bigger names who have come out of AI such as Carrie Underwood, Adam Lambert, Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson and Chris Daughtry?

      I’m thrilled you enjoyed Haley Reinhart; obviously, I think she has quite a talent and will continue making a name for herself. Thanks for your great comments and for going to such great lengths to participate!

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      Reply

      1. Hi Nancy yes I have heard of Carrie Underwood, Adam Lambert, Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson and Chris Daughtry? They are all well known over here especially Adam Lambert because of his work with Queen. Yes they are all instantly recognisable I just never took the time to see how and why they are popular, all very talented 💜 💜💜

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  12. Well done Nancy thanks for all your sterling work great going !

    You certainly made me work this week because I have never seen American Idol ever ! Yes I had heard of it but never really known of any of the success stories, or really heard of any of the competitors or at least not known they were associated. So it was best foot forward for me.

    Anyway you made a good choice this week Haley has a great voice…but Id never heard of her before.💜💜💜

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  13. Pingback: Song Lyric Sunday: American Idol. – willowdot21

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