Trying to sound like someone else is a mistake. Deliberately trying to develop a "style" is a mistake. When you do that, you can't help but wind up sounding phony, and you can never be any more that a second-rate imitation of someone else.

Try* to sing the songs you want to do straight. Just sing the words naturally (don't try for any accent or dialect) and sing the words on the right notes without fancying them up or embellishing them. Too darned many singers these days sing as if they don't know what the right note is at any given point in a song, and it's like they're groping around for it!).

Birds don't seem to have these problems. They just open their little beaks and let 'er rip!

Don Firth

*No, that's wrong. Don't "try." Just do it!

Do or not do! There is no "try!"
                                     —Yoda