Barry Manilow

American Idol III soldiers on tonight without the sadly departed Jon Peter Lewis (JPL). In an online poll conducted on idolonfox.com, 70% of the people polled agreed that JPL is the most missed of the contestants, with Camile Velasco getting 27% of the vote. A whopping 8,873,474 votes were cast. With these kind of numbers, perhaps JPL should think about running for President.

Tonight's focus is the music of Barry Manilow. Manilow agreed to act as both a mentor and judge on the show -- with one condition: that he got to rearrange the songs for each of the "Idols." Manilow's concern was that his 1970's songs would sound like "elevator music" if they were not rearranged to fit the times. In addition to updating the arrangements, Manilow also rearranged his music to fit the specific talents of each of the contestants.

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Manilow has done a special rearrangement of "Its A Miracle" for Fantasa Barrino. "'I gave Fantasia, who I think is a real good singer, a rollicking, rip-roaring, church-gospel version of 'It's a Miracle.' It pushed it more towards her strength. She just goes to church on that song, including that funny little dance you do in church.'"

Many people have compared Clay Aiken to Barry Manilow. Manilow has heard that many times and he thinks that Aiken has a better voice than he does.

Tonight's performers are:

George Huff

Jennifer Hudson

Diana DeGarmo

Fantasia Barrino

Jasmine Trias

John Stevens

LaToya London

Look for a wrap-up report later tonight once American Idol has aired here on the West Coast.