Richard Cheese: Ripe for success

Richard Cheese performs '80s and '90s punk and alternative songs in a cocktail lounge style

(CNN) -- With a martini in his hand and a song in his heart, Richard Cheese holds the stage and belts out a standard:

"I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here
I don't belong here ..."

Hmm, maybe Radiohead's "Creep" hasn't quite earned "standard" status yet. But that doesn't faze Cheese, a Los Angeles-based singer who performs '80s and '90s punk and alternative anthems such as "Creep," Blink 182's "What's My Age Again," Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" and the Dead Kennedys' "Holiday in Cambodia."

Each is delivered in a distinctive cocktail lounge style. The songs can be heard on Cheese's new album, "Lounge Against the Machine."

"The whole point is we're taking these songs and doing them in a different style," the singer told CNN's Paul Vercammen earlier this summer. "But we're not changing the words. We're including all the cuss words. We're interpreting, and that's what a lounge singer does."

Sinatra wannabe?

VIDEO CNN's Paul Vercammen has more on 'Richard Cheese' and his lounge versions of rock songs (August 29) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     AUDIO 'Creep' sound '(You've Got To) Fight for Your Right (to Party)' sound 'What's My Age Again? sound   RESOURCES Richard Cheese on the Web

Cheese may be a lounge singer, but he's also a character -- one created and portrayed by Mark Jonathan Davis, a Los Angeles comedian and voice-over artist. If that name doesn't ring a bell, some of his work might: He's the voice behind many jingles, including NBC's "Must See TV" ads and promotional parodies for Nick at Nite.

Cheese was born while Davis was working for the highly rated "Kevin and Bean" morning show on Los Angeles' KROQ radio. One of his radio characters was a 55-year-old intern named Paul.

"He was a guy who really liked Sinatra, stuck at this alternative-rock radio station," Davis recalls. "So we had the character record his own versions of these (alternative) songs. That was the original inspiration for Cheese."

What does Cheese think of the songs he records?

"The music that's out today, the songs these kids are writing -- it's a new golden age of songwriting," Davis answers as the singer. "Wonderful lyrics, soaring melodies -- these are beautiful songs. ... They are gems waiting to be mined."

Nine Inch Nails' "Closer," for example, may seem a cauldron of depressing, raging despair to the uninitiated. But, notes Cheese, "It may be a new breed of love song, but it is a love song. And if I'm a crooner, and there's a tune, I have a responsibility to belt it out."

Mark Jonathan Davis as Richard Cheese says he has a responsibility to belt out tunes

Cheese's interpretations have been well received by alternative rock radio.

"There are a lot of guys out there who try to do parody," says Jimmy Baron, producer and on-air personality for the "Morning X" show for radio station 99X in Atlanta, Georgia. "But (Cheese) has good production. You can tell they put time and effort into it. ... We've had a fantastic reaction. People think it's very funny."

From shower to lounge

Davis admits he's probably not the first to think of a singer like Cheese.

"So many people say, 'I sing these songs in the shower,' and I used to do that myself," he says. "I think it's been done before and it will be done again -- but nobody has the really cool tiger skin tux I have."

In between Cheese engagements -- the singer recently completed an East Coast tour -- Davis maintains Ideatown, an advertising and marketing company that helps firms, particularly media companies, think of creative ways of promoting their wares. Having Cheese around, he says, has been a big help.

Cheese's latest album is called "Lounge Against The Machine"

"He's very conducive to getting ideas out there," says Davis.

Which is why Richard Cheese looks to have a big future.

"I'd like to see some people do duets with me," Cheese says when asked of his plans. "I think Melissa Etheridge will do it."

And, of course, another album to follow up "Lounge Against the Machine" is planned. The working title: "Back in Black -- Tie," a new lineup of cover songs.

"We're doing Britney Spears in concert now," he says. Weezer's "Hash Pipe," from that band's current album, is another "standard" that may be on Cheese's forthcoming record.

Cheese pauses, obviously pleased with the way things are going. "As long as there is a good song out there," he says, "Richard Cheese will sing it."