Richard Cheese, The Sunny Side of the Moon: The Best of Richard Cheese

There was a time when Las Vegas lounge music was taken seriously — back then, the immortal Rat Pack took audiences by storm and reigned supreme, and even their lounge singer hangers-on got some respect. Then along came Saturday Night Live; they created Bill Murray’s lounge lizard sketch and kicked off the popular satirical view of the genre. The lampooning’s thrived through the years and has most recently given birth to artist Richard Cheese.

If you haven’t heard of him, he’s the Weird Al Yankovic of the lounge world; he rearranges popular rock and rap songs into lounge acts. The Sunny Side of the Moon collects classic tracks from his past albums, where he covers all kinds of artists, from Slipknot to Pink Floyd. Some songs are more serious and sound like legitimate covers (covers of U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and Radiohead’s “Creep” come off pretty straight), but other songs are played strictly for humor. It doesn’t get much better than hearing him sing “Open up your hate / And let it flow into me” on his cover of “Down with the Sickness” by Disturbed. Another high moment is at the album’s start, during the sing-song-y cover of Nirvana’s “Rape Me.” Cheese ices the musical cake with his occasional comments to the audience or his bandmembers: “Seriously, folks, we do weddings!”

Wacky banter aside, the music is rather good. Most of it is typical lounge-jazz (piano, guitar, bass, drums, and a few horns), but some of the songs are labeled the “big band versions,” and those songs have obviously more expansive instrumentation. In a nutshell, Richard Cheese’s music is his namesake: it’s cheesy faux lounge-jazz, but it’s fun. Recommended for all music fans with senses of humor, and general jazz fans should give it a listen, too.