The winners of American Idol seem to have been working on some kind of bouncing ball principle. Kelly Clarkson won American Idol and became a megastar, then the fat bloke and the other two won American Idol and didn't.

But that should all change now, since Taylor Hicks won American Idol. Taylor's freaky hooting-and-yelping vocal style is distinct enough to make him a global superstar, shouldn't it? Well, that was the plan until Taylor Hicks decided to release his first ever single. Taylor Hicks is announcing the start of his career as a recording artist with a Doobie Brothers cover version. The Doobie Brothers!

The winners of shows like American Idol and X Factor always burst onto the scene in a blaze of glory, riding on the back of their initial success with one giant single, then a single that does less well, then an album that labours its way to number one for a week, then a part-time job in a supermarket, then a lifetime of bitterness directed at Simon Cowell. Just look at Gareth Gates. Of course, there are always exceptions – Kelly Clarkson has ripped off Pink shown her true colours enough to be a viable success on her own terms. 

And it's hoped the same will happen to Taylor Hicks; the prematurely grey, randomly bellowing winner of American Idol 2006. Simon Cowell – currently to be seen trying hard not to punch Sharon Osbourne into a bloody pulp on Celebrity X Factor – seems to think so. He was so convinced of Taylor's ability to become a success that he proclaimed him the winner of American Idol way before the final. But now Taylor Hicks has potentially arsed it all up by releasing a cover version of a rubbish Doobie Brothers song on his first ever single.

Needless to say, the first single by any kind of Simon Cowell-fronted TV show winner will be a lowest-common denominator power ballad packed full of manipulative keychanges with a vaguely motivational title. And that's what you're getting – a song called Do I Make You Proud. But the b-side is a cover of Takin' It To The Streets by half-forgotten Classic Gold FM staple The Doobie Brothers. Surely, by releasing a bland slab of toothless 30-year-old MOR, Taylor Hicks is merely announcing himself as nothing more than a jumped-up nostalgia act.

Still, not that we've heard Taylor Hicks' version of Takin' It To The Streets. Perhaps it's a cutting edge junglist re-telling of the song. Or perhaps it's just a grey-haired bloke yelping and whooping through a rubbish old song, who knows?

Read more:

Taylor Hicks Includes Doobie Brothers Tune On First Single – MTV

[story by Stuart Heritage]