Wow. We had some serious high flyers in this round and a couple of contests that could have gone either way. Five of our contestants had scores above 6.85 and three had scores above seven, putting them in the top six for the tournament so far. Unfortunately, two of those three songs went up against one another, which meant that one of them had to go home.

In any battle, only one can survive...

I thought the marquee match-up would have been Ike & Tina vs CCR, and while that didn’t disappoint, the real battle proved to be between Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton. Both songs in the clash of the country legends were extremely popular, and I know many of you expressed frustration that you had to choose between two of these so early in the tournament. Hopefully you’ll find some consolation knowing that both songs left it all on the floor, going back and forth for the better part of the last forty-eight hours. And now, the results:

Our first match-up provided the most lopsided victory of the night. Amy Winehouse’s version of Valerie claims the high score of the set with an average of 7.68 and slides comfortably into second place among winners advancing from the Round of 128 in its 130.55-77 dismantling of Adele’s Natural Woman. Not a single voter gave Adele the advantage in the battle of the caucasian divas.

In the showdown between Ike & Tina and CCR, Ike & Tina come out on top in what proved to be a bruising contest between two fairly popular selections. Proud Mary squeaks by I Put A Spell On You 118.6-116.6 with the two songs posting averages of 6.98 and 6.87 respectively. Interestingly, this contest turned out to be a proxy fight in the battle of the sexes, with female voters overwhelmingly pulling for Ike and Tina (or maybe just Tina) and males supporting CCR.

In our banner match-up of the night between Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash, the advantage shifted back and forth up until the very end, but when the dust settled, the Man in Black was the one left standing. It couldn’t have been much closer, with I Won’t Back Down edging out Shine 123.35 to 121.6. I Won’t Back Down was the lone contestant this round to make the Wall of 10s with Guillermo and Grant giving perfect scores. Both songs broke the 7 threshold though and Shine can go home knowing that, as of this round, it holds the sixth highest score of the tournament so far.

Finally, in our last contest, Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power) takes down Leslie King, as Sea of Love easily handled You Shook Me All Night Long 99.8-76.6.

With only 17 voters this round, turnout wasn’t spectacular, which is a shame since people seemed to respond positively to these tunes. If you enjoyed this round, tell your friends and loved ones to get on board and vote!