Some songs are so good it doesn't matter if the singer phones in their performance. (No, I'm not talking about Flash & The Pan) When a crowd of drunks belts out "Hey Jude" it can be almost as effective as the original recording due to the strength and originality of the lyrics and the melody. A so-so singer can rock out a karaoke performance of "Satisfaction" if all they do is sing loud and stay on beat because the accompaniment is so ballsy.
And then the reverse is true too: some singers are so adept that they can bring a transcendence to truly average material. There are some great songs on "21" but there's some filler too; if anyone but Adele was singing it, "Lovesong" would be completely forgettable. And what kind of impact would "What'd I Say" have on popular music if it had been a lesser singer than Ray Charles improvising it on stage? There is certainly a long list of novelty songs that stick in our heads in spite of their conspicuously banal quality, songs like "Hey Mickey" and "The Monster Mash," and they often owe any semblance of success to the capability of the lead vocalist, which might not be great singing, but is always great performance.
And then there are the songs which are elegantly constructed, carefully edited, beautifully arranged and exquisitely sung. Those are the ones that really get stuck in our heads, and when they do we actually don't mind, don't curse them as 'earworms' and try to drive them out. For me, this is that song for this week, and this is the performance I first heard of it; it's so refreshing to hear a singer who obviously doesn't depend on studio tricks to sound good. As someone said on a comment thread, he won The Voice that night despite not being a contestant...
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