NBC lines up Idols and country singers for Fourth of July celebration

The TV version of the Fourth of July offers old songs, old traditions and young “American Idol” singers.

At least, that’s what the Fourth has this year with:

“The top three “Idol” finalists from this year on NBC. That’s Jordin Sparks, Blake Lewis and Melinda Doolittle.

“The guy who came in third place last year on PBS. That’s Elliot Yamin.

NBC also has Martina McBride and Joss Stone. Then it closes with the New York Pops orchestra backing fireworks.

PBS has gospel star Yolanda Adams, plus Hayden Panettiere (the young “Heroes” star and pop singer), Tony Danza, Bebe Neuwirth and the National Symphony. It also has the emotion that comes with performing on the Capitol lawn.

Danza, who is hosting, can tell you about that. He recalls a previous Capitol concert, this one honoring World War I veterans on the eve of a Memorial Day.

“It just poured rain,” he says. “Someone said maybe we shouldn’t do the tap-dance number.

“I said, ‘What? They fought in the mud; we can at least dance in the rain.’ “

Adds Danza: “This is true Americana. I’m the son of a garbage man. My parents are first-generation Italian-Americans and look at all the things that I get to do.”

That theme, instant mobility, is especially clear when “Idol” is involved.

There’s Lewis, suddenly a pop star.

“I was definitely like a nerdy kind of a loner in high school,” he said, shortly after the “Idol” finals.

There’s Doolittle, shedding the obscurity of being a backup singer. And Sparks, this year’s “Idol” winner, fresh from her junior year of high school.

Then there’s Yamin, who never got that far, dropping out of school.

“I did get my GED, though,” he says. “And I did half a semester of community college.”

That was after he’d started his job at a Foot Locker in Richmond, Va. He stayed there six years with dwindling hopes of being a star.

“I was used to always getting a job, taking care of myself,” Yamin says. “I honestly had nothing to do … I had aspirations, but I didn’t know what to do about them.”

He’d had plenty of problems, both medical (severe allergies, diabetes, and he’s 90 percent deaf in one ear) and personal. Yamin studied for his bar mitzvah, for instance, but never completed it.

“That was a terribly difficult period of my life,” he says.

He sang, but gradually felt the music dreams drift away. Then came “Idol.”

Yamin sang in arenas for the “Idol” tour and in auditoriums for his solo tour behind his self-titled album, which debuted in March at No. 3 on the Billboard chart. Yet that only partly prepared him for the masses – estimated at 300,000-plus – he’ll face at the Capitol lawn concert.

“It’s going to be surreal,” he said.

He’ll be returning to a favorite spot from his boyhood. There were many trips from Richmond to Washington, D.C.

“We’d go to the zoo to the Smithsonian … to the Holocaust Museum,” Yamin says.

And now he’ll be in the spotlight. He’s also had a makeover, complete with dental work.

“It really surprises me sometimes,” Yamin says. “I’ve never had much of a smile before. … Of course, now I’ve got a lot to smile about.”