THE HYPE ENJOYING HER TIME ANDREA MARCOVICCI MARKS THE SOUNDS OF A GENERATION.

Andrea Marcovicci tells the story of sneaking out of her parents house as a teen in the mid-'60s to audition as a folk singer at a Greenwich Village coffee house.

Thinking herself a songwriter, she showed up with her guitar and wearing the ``appropriate amount of fringe'' and bellbottoms. There, however, she saw another hopeful try out, and Marcovicci ``never wrote another song.''

Oh well, hearing Joni Mitchell for the first time probably made a lot of would-be singer-songwriters rethink their careers.

Marcovicci instead turned to acting in films (``The Front'') and on TV and stage. In 1985 she picked up her singing career and today is considered America's premier cabaret performer. But lately the Studio City resident, who has been a shimmering ambassador for the Great American Songbook (the tunes of Berlin, Gershwin, Kern and Porter among others), has been thinking about her own times.

During millennium celebrations in 1999 she was approached by a number of orchestras to do wrap-ups for the century.

``But I realized they didn't want 100 years of music; they wanted the music that ended in 1955,'' Marcovicci says. And she wondered where the ``wonderful music of my generation'' fit in.

Her thoughts, she says, naturally turned to Mitchell, Paul Simon and even John Denver. So with those tunesmiths in mind, she decided to champion the songs of her era. The results are her latest album, ``Here, There and Everywhere.'' Out of that the chanteuse has woven together the songs with a narrative create her newest stage show, ``Our Songs: 1965 to 1985,'' which she will be performing at UCLA's Royce Hall on Saturday.

The songs were chosen, Marcovicci says, because she went back to her real memories and the tunes that mean something to her and because they could stand up to the dramatic interpretation of a cabaret singer.

``(This) is probably the most personal show that I ever put together because for a change that instead of telling the story of Kurt Weill or Irving Berlin or Noel Coward ... this one tells more of my own life story,'' she says.

Part of her life story also includes being at another first - the Beatles' first appearance on ``The Ed Sullivan Show'' in 1964. Marcovicci had been going to Catholic girls school at the time and didn't know much about the Fab Four, but ended up screaming like everyone else. Now, several Beatles songs are included in the show, including ``In My Life'' and ``When I'm 64.'' When she sings the latter, the 51-year-old Marcovicci jokes to her audience - many of them baby boomers like her - ``Remember when that seemed so far away?''

But her life isn't all about looking back. She's married to a man 14 years her junior, actor Daniel Reicheart, and they have a 5-year-old daughter. And to facilitate this lifestyle change, the couple ``got a Volvo and moved to the Valley.''

Marcovicci admits that she originally had a New Yorker prejudice against the area, but now finds it ``so much more delightful than any place I've lived in Los Angeles.''

As she talks about how she delights in going to the Studio City market on Sundays or to the different stores along Ventura Boulevard or she sings you a snippet from a song, it reminds you of a line from a James Taylor tune that's part of the show.

``The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.''

- Rob Lowman

ANDREA MARCOVICCI

Where: UCLA'S Royce Hall.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets: $45 to $9. Call [phone].

BOOK BEAT

POTTER GUIDE: The movie isn't going to be released for eight months and the next book is, oh, a good two years away.

But for those who are anxious to get on the train to Hogwarts from track no. 9 3/4 NOW, well, don't forget your textbooks. As a fix for hard-core Harry Potter fans, J.K. Rowling has released two of the books that Harry has carted around the school for wizards during his four years there.

``Quidditch Through the Ages'' gives sports fans a look at the would-be wizards' favorite game, including a rules and even a history of broomsticks. ``Fantastic Beats & Where to Find Them'' - an A-to-Z listing of magical beats - is required reading for all Hogwarts students (and Hagrid's favorite), giving an inside look at the collection of beasts that inhabit Harry's world. (This one also includes snide remarks, notes and scribbles in the margins from Harry and his buds, Ron and Hermione.)

Our own 11-year-old book critic pronounced the two slim volumes fun, something he could ``pick up and read in little bites'' while he is waiting for book five.

Published by Scholastic, the books sell for $3.99 each (that's 14 Sickles 3 Knuts), and the net proceeds will go to a special Harry's Books fund established by Comic Relief, U.K., that will focus on children's issues.

- Janet Firestein Katzman

ON THE STREET

PUT IT THERE: The Southern California car culture is not all about classics, cruising and car washes. One of its darker sides - one that many, many motorists relate to - is difficulty in finding a legal place to leave an automobile on a Los Angeles street. From the sometimes conflicting instructions on multisigned ``totem poles'' to the futility of arguing or pleading away a ticket with a parking enforcement officer, the KCET special ``Pain & Parking in Los Angeles'' captures, with considerable humor, the utter frustration that prompts many drivers to pound their heads against their steering wheels. According to this documentary, getting there is the easy part. It's finding a decent spot to get out of your car that's hard. The show, airing at 9:30 p.m. Monday, is a chance to commiserate with the suffering drivers interviewed ... and a reminder to check your own avenue's street-cleaning schedule.

- Valerie Kuklenski

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1) ANDREA MARCOVICCI

(2) no caption (``FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM'' by J.K. Rowling)