On Idol last night, Jason Castro announced that he was going to sing ‘Over the Rainbow,’ as performed by Brudda Iz. When I heard that, I thought, ‘OK, this is either going to be insanely great, or really awful.’ As it turned out, it was unbelievably great. He captured the essence of Iz’s version, but he owned it, too. And he played the ukulele! I was almost speechless when he finished. He got praise from all three judges, which he richly deserved.

You can buy Jason’s version of the song from iTunes, which I just did. I’m on my second listen right now. Wow.