I usually try to sound as much like me as I possibly can when I sing.

But many songs need to be sung with some attempt at reproducing the words as they were written. Try singing Manura Manyah and you'll get what I mean. Also try reciting any Stanley Holloway stuff. It just doesn't come off in American or Cockney.

That's the penalty we pay for learning songs from outside our own village or town, and we have to go along with it.

What is really horrible are all those Dylan or Woody singalikes.