American Idol David Cook Credits Doxology for "Eleanor Rigby" Arrangement
April 2, 2008

We've just received word that American Idol contestant David Cook has credited fringe Seattle band Doxology for his March 11 performance of the famous Beatles' song "Eleanor Rigby". According to a press release issued on April 2 by Doxology publicists that was sent to us mid-afternoon, David Cook spoke to American Idol host Ryan Seacrest in a live on-air interview announcing that the March 11 "Eleanor Rigby" arrangement was indeed inspired by Doxology "Eleanor Rigby" arrangement.

In the release, Doxology front man Luke McPherson noticed Cook's credit to Seacrest while on a break from rehearsing for an upcoming show this Thursday and issued the following statement on David Cook's credit of the Doxology arrangement:

"Re-imagining the Beatles is always tough. We worked very hard to do it in a fresh and new way. The band and I were thrilled to hear the mention tonight. We have to give a lot of credit to the folks at 19 Entertainment, and American Idol for working with our management; their mutual commitment to fix this issue was great; the support throughout has been amazing. And, most important we gotta give David Cook massive props. We all just wanted the same thing here, and that was simply to 'right' the situation from a few weeks back. David did that on Idol tonight and we thank him for that. Now, we're excited to just move on and continue recording the new album we are working on."

This latest announcement comes fresh on the heels of yesterday's news that David Cook's recent performance of "Billie Jean" was a re-arrangement of the popular Michael Jackson song recorded by Chris Cornell in 2007 for his solo album. The reaction from Doxology was much the same as Cornell's reaction to Cook's "Billie Jean" cover. On Tuesday, Chris Cornell, former front man for the Seattle based Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine mash-up Audioslave, was quick to point out to Billboard online the reality of Cook's "Billie Jean" cover, but he was fine with the overall performance, "You can clearly see that the judges are giving this guy credit for it on national television. My fans were like, 'Wait a minute! That's Chris Cornell's moment... Don't get me wrong. He sang it great. But it was literally a note-for-note take on what I came up with. At the end of the day, it's all good. It's a good thing for me."

However, as Cornell elaborated on the issue to Billboard, he did mentio that people can often become confused when a certain approach is applied to rearranging a song and that credit needs to be given to an approach when it dramatically departs from a familiar work. If it's too similar, Cornell states, "... if it's not something that's completely recognizable, it can be mistaken." Cornell admits that his version is such a radical departure that it is indeed recognizable as his unique version of the song.

Given the popularity of American Idol and its massive audience, it looks like the show and its contestants will now have to go the extra mile to come clean on their arrangements. Is originality and creativity dead among new and emerging singers?