American Idol 60's Edition

Cafe Society
1

Down to the last 10 hopefuls. The contestants are:

  1. Sam Cooke from Mississippi

  2. Otis Redding from Georgia

  3. Janis Joplin

  4. Marvin Gaye

  5. Darlene Love

  6. Aretha Franklin

  7. Joan Baez

  8. Brenda Lee

  9. Frankie Valli

  10. James Brown

Who wins?

Here’s my scenario: James Brown forgets the lyrics to a song and just makes up words and screams and shakes on stage. Judges say it was unfortunate that he forgot the words but think the overall performance was awesome and they want to hear him do a slow number next time. There is no next time and he is sent home.
Everyone loves Janis Joplin’s back story and destroys the stage whenever she’s on. The producers discover she drinks too much and feel she’ll be a bad influence to the young viewers of the show and is quietly taken off the show.

Joan Baez has an excellent voice but people think her material is boring and her performance one-dimensional. She gets sent home.

Frankie Valli excites the crowd every time. Judges ask him to try something else out of his comfort zone. He loses and is sent home.

Darlene Love, the judges think, sounds like everyone else. The audience loves her. She stays.

Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin breeze through the competition.

A little backstage drama: Otis and Aretha want to do the same song - Respect. The producers agree to let them sing the same song. Aretha wins.

Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye are neck to neck but Sam sings Cupid and every chick in the audience faints. He gets the votes.

Brenda Lee wins. She’s small and cute and a Southern gal.

Your views?

2

Early 60’s or late 60’s?

Early 60’s, Brenda – she can rock it. Late 60’s, Sam Cooke – he’d get the “let’s come together” votes.

3

Sam Cooke died in 1964 so there’s no way he’d win anything in the late Sixties. Although you could conceivably have all in the same room in early 1964, most of them already had well-established careers and you’d really have to stretch to bring Janis into the group. If you stock with the American Idol scenario, better to place it around three or four years earlier.

4

Okay then. Otis Redding for the “come together” vote. :slight_smile:

I don’t know the demographics of Idol voters. I assume a good percentage are teenage girls, so maybe Frankie Valli would have won. I was a teen in the 60’s, and would have voted for Cooke or Valli, but a big part of Valli’s allure was the group, not just him.

5

I’ve got it down to Sam, Otis, and Aretha; they were most versatile. My heart is with Sam.