Mission NOT Impossible: Making TPTB and Simon Cowell see $$$

I haven't googled yet today because I'm avoiding American Idol results show spoilers, but if they haven't picked up on this idea yet, will somebody please talk the media into investigating this tidbit.

A spike in sales of The Donny Hathaway Collection cd at Amazon was observed immediately following Elliott Yamin's performance of A Song for You. During the pre-song interview, Elliott said he wanted to pay tribute to Donny Hathaway's music and to bring it to the forefront. Well guess what, funky white boy, I think you did just that.

When I checked last night, its sales rank was #42. Right now, as of this writing, it's #26. The day before, it was #196. Others have observed that prior to AI's Love Songs night, the rank was #2,400. Others say it was #4000+. I don't know how true the 2,400 rank is, but from #196 to #42, then #26 in a matter of two days? Man, that alone is impressive.

If anyone had access to (or could request for) Amazon's data it would be easy to track the actual sales rank from before April 25 and after, till today. Aside from sales rank, one can also check other metrics: how many times were the keywords "A Song for You" and "Donny Hathaway" used in product searches? One might also want to check how many times the song has been downloaded at iTunes and other music/mp3 sites. It's fascinating. Elliott is selling songs and cds already, and they aren't even his! What more if he gets to release his own? If this won't make TPTB* and Simon Cowell see $$$, I don't know what will.

Has anything like this ever been observed in AI history? I'm not being smug, nor am I asking a rhetorical question. I really would like to know. So will someone please put a reporter to work on this?

Gushing about performance night to follow later (maybe!) as I'm still in a daze.

* In AI speak, TPTB = The Powers That Be, i.e., the producers.