I don't watch AI but heard that David Cook sang one of my favorite songs in the finale "The World I Know" by Collective Soul, and I caught his performance on youtube. He totally NAILED that song, and the only thing I regret is that he only got to sing a short version of it. I think that was David Cook's final performance in the competition, and it was a surprise because most contestants who make it that far apparently repeat songs they've performed on the show earlier (what's up with that??), and judge Simon Cowell criticized Cook for not following that pattern (though he praised Cook's performance of this "beautiful song"), only to apologize to Cook on the next show, right before it was announced that Cook had won --- by 12 million votes.

I think that song and the way Cook sang it were instrumental in Cook's big win.

My favorte versons of the song by Collective Soul are actually Live performances, i.e. on 2 of their DVD's: the self titled one filmed in Morocco in 2000, right before original lead guitarist Ross Childress (who co-wrote the song) left the band, and then on the more recent DVD (2006) called Home with an orchestra. My very favorite performance was when lead singer/songwriter Ed Roland and Ross Childress' replacement, Joel Kosche, played the song with just the one voice and 2 ringingly beautiful acoustic guitars in 2006 on Howard Stern's Sirius Satellite Radio show.

Anyway I'm very glad that David Cook won and sang that song, and am also very happy for Collective Soul and Ross Childress, who are probably enjoying some nice CD and track-downloading sales right about now.

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