iDols on iTunes...

With Beatles weeks thankfully behind us, and the top 10 firmly entrenched upon the sofa, we're heading into the first half of the final stretch, awaiting Tuesday's 90-minute celebration of that oldie but goody theme of songs that charted during the year of each contestant's birth. (And for perspective, the oldest idol, Michael Johns, was born in 1978; the youngest, David Archuleta, was born in 1990. So, essentially, it's 80s night again.)

Performance sales at iTunes over the past week has changed somewhat but, at the same time, has stayed somewhat the same.

Archuleta's Imagine continues to hold the top spot by a wide margin, followed by a close race for two and three between Jason Castro's Hallelujah and David Cook's Hello. In fact, all of the top ten downloads are semi-final performances. So, those 90-second performance recordings are still the most popular downloads over the full-length studio versions of Lennon/McCartney/Beatles tunes, but considering they've been available for much longer, I don't find it all that surprising.

[The list that formerly included both performance and studio versions has now been stripped of the studio versions, so the rankings this week are not correct. Thanks to Kristi and Sara in the comments for pointing that out and wading through the overall AI list for a more accurate assessment. The overall list, however, does pit the current idols against Idol alumni, such as Jordin Sparks and Daughtry.]

The most interesting leap in sales has been for the video downloads which are available only for the finals performances and which were hovering at or below the bottom of the overall download list last week at this time. Many of them have now surpassed the less-expensive audio-only downloads and are sitting viably at the top half of the chart.

The video downloads are soaring up the charts. At $1.99 they're a little pricier, but they are very high quality. The judges comments are NOT included, so if there was a finals performance that you particularly enjoyed and want to enjoy again, they are worth the two bucks.

Archuleta's The Long and Winding Road, Brooke's Let it Be, David Cook's Eleanor Rigby and Chikezie's She's a Woman find themselves in the top 25 overall list. The others are scattered between the total list of 83 offerings.

Here's the top ten video download list:

1. The Long and Winding Road (David Archuleta)
2. Let it Be (Brooke White)
3. Eleanor Rigby (David Cook)
4. She's a Woman (Chikezie)
5. Come Together (Carly Smithson)
6. Day Tripper (David Cook)
7. Michelle (Jason Castro)
8. If I Fell (Jason Castro)
9. We Can Work It Out (David Archuleta)
10. Blackbird (Carly Smithson)

These numbers are as of 8:06 a.m. Saturday, March 22, so they are subject to change as fans flock to download their faves.

Your thoughts?