He had me at Take. Something you hear often in the Clay Nation. What the heck does it mean? Is it an outtake of a sniveling Rene Zellweger from Jerry McGuire? (If she knew then what we know now about Tom Cruise, it should have been You had me at...oh hell, you never had me. Get out of my house and go board a spaceship with L. Ron, you little nutcase)
This weekend is the fourth anniversary of Take. Take was the first words we ever heard Clay Aiken sing. He sang Always and Forever for his audition in front of Randy and Simon. Paula was..indisposed.
Here's a great montage of all known clips we have of that audition. You'll see that he actually didn't start the song on the line "take time to tell me" but in Idol tradition of slicing a song to unrecognizable bits, the producers only showed that part of it. The rest of it came off the Idol website later.
It's funny, people even talk about what they were doing when they heard Take. At that time, Idol was mixing good and bad auditions in the early shows, unlike today which is just a parade of brain sucking freakshow rejects. So back then, you couldn't tell who was going to be good and who was going to tank. This young, gangly geeky kid in ordinary clothes that he describes in his memoirs as having been bought in the best store in Raleigh, came walking out. The number 5230 was on his chest. I don't even remember if I was looking at the TV. But when I heard him start to sing, I sat on the edge of my seat. I don't think my life has been the same since.
I remember when the Hollywood auditions started, I don't even know if I remembered his name but I was looking for him. They didn't really show him much, one clip had him rehearsing in the hotel room with another singer from the Carolinas who would later become a close friend and his background singer from the beginning of his solo career to present. She's part of our Clay Nation family too and when she had a baby last spring, we had a virtual baby shower for her.
So really this blog really is more of a mini blog of sorts simply to say Happy Anniversary to Clay and to us. Everyone should go play 5230 today in their state lottery. I hear it's a winner.
Photo by Karen, eh?, montage by Hosaa and Photoshop by Invisible926
Technorati tags: Clay Aiken
American Idol
Auditions
Rene Zellweger
Tom Cruise
Jerry McGuire
4 comments:
At the time of Take I was watching and reading - I didn't watch AI the first season until the last two shows so I had no real interest. Then that voice - and truth be told, I fell in love with the smile and the cheekbones. I thought he was adorable pre-makeover. I called my husband in as soon as he opened his mouth and he joined me in awe. We've never looked back. Thanks for reminding us of where it all started.
Confession time. Clay didn't have me at take. But if I had heard his song from the beginning, I would have been toast much earlier. lol.
Just wonderful, Corabeth!
A thoughtful and tender blog --- and you saved me from having to post the striped shirt picture. *g*
Thanks for this wonderful contribution to four years of memories.
I was in my clothes closet searching for the next day's outfit when I heard the conversation between Simon and Clay. Then I heard "Take..." and you never saw anyone move so fast as I did that night. Had me from that moment on... Thanks for the memories, Corabeth.
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