Adam Lambert’s “Mad World” performance on American Idol’s Top 8 April 7th theme, Songs From The Year You Were Born, received much deserved praise from Gary Jules, who first stripped down the “Mad World” arrangement for the movie Donnie Darko.

According to the Associated Press, Gary Jules was winding down for the night and turned on American Idol, which he refers to as his “guilty pleasure”, but was in another room when he heard the song Mad World come on the TV.

“I ran out and I was like, `I knew he was gonna do it! I knew it!’” he recalls. “I’ve been waiting for years for somebody to do it. I thought David Cook was gonna do it last year for sure. … As soon as I saw that guy Adam on `American Idol,’ I was like, ‘Oooh, this could be it.’”

40-year-old Gary Jules certainly deserves some of the credit for Adam Lambert’s Idol performance singing Mad World on Tuesday night’s American Idol, and seeing Idol judge Simon Cowell give Adam Lambert a standing ovation was priceless to say the least. Gary Jules loved how Adam made the song his own, putting his own spin on Mad World, and Idol fans continue to watch the video performance over and over.
Read more »