Jukebox Check-In • “Johnny Aloha: Lavapalooza” (2010)

As a big fan of lounge music and novelty songs, Richard Cheese is tailor-made for me. Cheese and his backup band Lounge Against the Machine (consisting of pianist Bobby Ricotta, drummer Frank Feta, and bassist Billy Bleu) have the ingenious shtick of covering popular songs into the Vegas-y/Rat Pack style—think Sinatra belting out Metallica’s Greatest Hits or Khia’s “My Neck, My Back” in the style of “The Way You Look Tonight.” (Personally, I much prefer his version of Radiohead’s “Creep” from the Sunny Side Of The Moon album over the original. Cheese changes the lyrics “I want a perfect body / I want a matching soul” to “I want a perfect body and a matching soul,” which sounds a lot better.)

“Johnny Aloha: Lavapalooza” (2010) is a departure from Cheese’s usual style in that it’s a collection of (mostly) beach/summer related songs in the Exotica genre. There are a few outliers, such as “Gangsta’s Paradise” and “Clint Eastwood” that aren’t explicitly beach/summer related, but still give off the vibes to me. (Interestingly enough, instead of Richard Cheese, Mark Jonathan Davis goes by the “Johnny Aloha” moniker for this one album. Perhaps it’s because he’s trying to ape the style of Don Ho instead of Dean Martin or Sammy Davis Junior.)

The album artwork is excellent, an as-per-usual masterpiece by Shag, one of my favorite artists of all time. When just a print of his artwork is around $1,000, I can’t even imagine how much it would be to commission him! I guess that’s why they call him Richard “Cheese…”

Listen to the album here:

"Johnny Aloha: Lavapalooza" (2010) | Richard Cheese

Track Listing:

1. “Vacation” by The Go-Gos • A pretty straightforward Hawaiian cover of a great song. It was a smart choice to start the album out with this one, given that the preceding songs will do more with the Exotica concept.
2. “California Girls” by Katy Perry • While searching for the original song, I was made aware that The Beach Boys also have a tune named “California Girls.” The More You Know, I guess. Anyway, another conventional cover, albeit a slightly worse one. Richard’s “Oh-oh-oh”s are a bit too slow for my liking and sound a little weird to listen to. Too breathy!
3. “Paradise City” by Guns ‘N’ Roses • The delivery of “I'll pay you at another time / Take it to the end of the line” (exactly a minute into the song) is the best part of this one. The lap steel guitar gets a little solo, which is neat.
4. “Stewardess Announcement” • A charming (albeit dated) interlude to break up the monotony of the album. Some stuff from the past is nice, like lounge music—other stuff is not. (Just use the term ‘flight attendant,’ please.)
5. “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio • Pretty good! The wailing in the background of the original song perfectly fits into the random vocalizations present in old Exotica tunes. But watch out, Richard! You don’t wanna get on Coolio’s bad side like Mr. Yankovic!
6. “Last Resort” by Papa Roach • Speaking of random sound effects, there’s a lot of monkey business to start this one out! The bongos and (I think) moog synth, along with the rhythmic grunting, help to differentiate this one from the previous tracks. It feels less like a Jimmy Buffett tune and more like a ritualistic chant that plays while Jacoby Shaddix sacrifices someone.
7. “Rock Lobster” by The B-52s • The guitar substituting Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson’s animal noises from the original song reminded me a lot of the Dwanye’s guitar lesson from the Home Movies episode “Guitarmageddon.” (“Now make it sound like my old lady’s cat!” “Which one?” “The tabby!”) I’m pretty sure that the ending is a deep-cut reference to Jack Costanzo’s “Spoken Tag (Bongo Commercial)” from the Ultra•Lounge Tiki Sampler album. If so, pretty cool!
8. “Clint Eastwood” by Gorillaz • My dislike of the original song hampers my enjoyment of this one, but it is a noticeable improvement. (I’m not that much of a Gorillaz fan—even though they are in Fortnite). The backing vocals, spoken in what sounds like accurate Hawaiian, do a lot of heavy lifting for this.
9. “Drink to Hawaii” • An original song by Mr. Cheese himself! (Or Johnny Aloha, whatever.) It’s actually a pretty clever and catchy tune, I wish he’d do a lot more original stuff like how Weird Al does. There’s a LOT different of cocktails out there, apparently!
10. “Thong Song” by Sisqó • Richard Cheese is at his funniest when covering the filthiest of tunes, and this album’s rendition of Sisqó’s “Thong Song” does not disappoint. Not only is it a great cover, but it’s also a perfect parody of Disneyland’s The Enchanted Tiki Room—where the birds sing words, the flowers croon, and “the booty go da na da na.” (The ending joke makes the whole thing end on a sour note, though.)
11. “Cruel Summer” by Bananarama • I had to Copy + Paste that band’s name because I am NOT trying to type that shit out on my own. This cover is “perfectly fine,” I literally can’t think of anything else to say about it.
12. “Pocketful of Sunshine” by Natasha Bedingfield • Another standard “Song + Hawaiian” formula, but with a “Call and Response” section that I’m not really a fan of. One of those rare Richard Cheese songs where the original song is better.
13. “Almost Paradise (Starring Corey Taylor and Richard Cheese)” by Mike Reno and Ann Wilson • Slipknot’s Corey Taylor joins Johnny Aloha and so does Richard Cheese, apparently. (I’m like 99.9% sure that Aloha is just Cheese pulling a Tony Clifton. If so, it fits him!) I’m sure that this would be a lot funnier if I was more aware of the Footloose soundtrack, but on its own, it’s pretty good. (The only Kevin Bacon movie I’m really familiar with is the original Friday the 13th.)
14. “Summertime” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince • The album starts to wear out its welcome with, like, the twentieth “it’s just okay.”
15. “Island in the Sun” by Weezer • A melancholic take on Weezer’s radio darling, with the Hip-Hips sounding almost ghostly! Perhaps this a reference to how Weezer’s era of making good music died with The Green Album.

OVERALL: Pretty good, but starts to get a little old towards the end. Although he tries to shake things up like with “Drink to Hawaii” and his take on “Last Resort,” “Johnny Aloha” ends up kinda pigeonholed with this album being tied to the Hawaiian/Exotica genre. Despite his other albums being in the lounge style, they have a lot more variety than this one ended up having. Perhaps this should’ve been a few tracks shorter, perhaps there should’ve been more contrasts, or perhaps I should stop looking so intently into novelty songs.

[This review was originally posted on 3/21/2026 via my Patreon. Subscribe for just $1.50 a month and get early access to not only my book/movie/TV/album reviews, but to my artwork, comics, and creative writing, too!]