LOS ANGELES (AP) – 'American Idol' finalists Michael Lynche and Katie Stevens don't need any help from their friends.

The 26-year-old personal trainer from Astoria, New York, and 17-year-old high school student from Middlebury, Connecticut, were in bloom on Tuesday with their interpretations of tunes from the songbook of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Lynche impressed on the Fox singing competition with a soulful 'Eleanor Rigby', while Stevens wowed with a confident 'Let It Be'.

"There is no way you'll be in the bottom three," Ellen DeGeneres told Stevens. Garnering the most attention, however, was not the contestants, judges or host Ryan Seacrest but a bagpipe player who unexpectedly descended on the stage during a rendition of 'Hey Jude' from 24-year-old paint sales clerk Lee Dewyze of Mount Prospect, Illinois. The judges giggled at the accompaniment, which Dewyze took "100 percent" credit for engineering.

"I didn't realise Jude was Scottish," Seacrest squawked.

The panel was downright adoring on Tuesday, praising such previously scorned singers as 20-year-old glass blower Siobhan Magnus of Marstons Mills, Massachusetts, and 20-year-old college student Tim Urban of Duncanville, Texas. The unpredictable Magnus won back the judges with a moody 'Across the Universe', while Urban was complimented for his rendition of 'All My Loving'.