Nothing to Do on New Year’s Eve? Take a Look : The activities: Say goodbye to 1995 with music, merriment and good humor.

Tired of spending New Year’s Eve in front of the television watching Dick Clark and the crowd back in Times Square? Why not resolve to shake old habits and spend New Year’s Eve with somebody special this year, say Cybill Shepherd or Frankie Valli? Or maybe you’d rather dance to the voice of Donna Summer, head-bang along with the blast from the Blue Oyster Cult, or hike into the hills for a champagne toast at midnight high above the city?

As usual, there’s a broad array of happenings Dec. 31, all designed to make your transition to 1996 a joyous one. Swing and Latin dancing are big-ticket items this New Year’s Eve, as are lounge singers and jazz orchestras--two forms of entertainment that saw a resurgence of interest in 1995. Guy Lombardo may be dead but his legacy lives on.

For those transplants who miss the crush of Times Square at midnight, the New Year’s Eve on Pine Square celebration will make for an incredible simulation. Traffic will be banned from Pine Avenue in Long Beach and replaced by live music on four stages, a laser show and a gigantic midnight countdown as a mirrored ball descends from the city’s historic Landmark Square clock tower. (Sound familiar?) Promoters estimated last year’s crowd at 12,000.

Restaurants in the Pine Avenue area, including L’Opera, (310) 491-0066; M Caffe and Gallery, (310) 435-2525; and Utopia, (310) 432-7202, will offer special dinner packages that include entry to the street celebration. Otherwise it costs $20 in advance, $25 at the gate to enter the festivities. (Admission to Times Square in New York is always free, but hold onto your wallet.) Call Mum’s Restaurant, (310) 437-7700, for general event information.

Looking for something intimate? Cybill Shepherd is also, as her fans well know, a cabaret vocalist of some repute. The actress, who’s currently seen in the CBS-TV series “Cybill,” will hold court with her musical director and pianist Robert Martin at the Cinegrill inside the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, (213) 466-7000, with shows at 8 and 10 p.m. Both include four-course dinner and the usual champagne and party favors for $125 per person. The hotel will also feature dancing in the Grand Lobby to the sounds of the Randy Randolph Trio.

Singer Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (remember “Big Girls Don’t Cry”?) will lead the year-end countdown at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, (310) 916-8500, with a 10 p.m. concert that’s scheduled to run past midnight. The party starts with dinner at 8 p.m., followed by the concert and an after-party that goes ‘til 2 a.m. You can choose to attend the concert ($30-$50), the concert and after-party only ($85), or the dinner, concert and after-party ($150).

Other notable musical events include Donna Summer at Universal Amphitheatre, (818) 980-9421; Pat Benatar at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana, (714) 957-1133; Blue Oyster Cult at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, (714) 496-8927; and the Gregg Allman Band at the Ventura Concert Theatre, (805) 648-1936. Many of these venues offer dinner-show combinations. Call for details.

Dance bands of all types abound at this year’s celebrations. Singer-keyboardist Page Cavanaugh, a virtual encyclopedia of what Tony Bennett calls “The Great American Songbook,” will lead an orchestra for listening and dancing at the St. Moritz Restaurant, 6711 Forest Lawn Drive, Toluca Lake, (213) 851-8844. Dinner and show packages are scheduled for 6 p.m. ($45) and 9:30 p.m. ($65).

The Frank Capp Juggernaut will perform at Twin Palms in Pasadena, (818) 577-2567; the Eddie Reed Swing Band holds forth at the new Twin Palms in Newport Beach, (714) 721-8288; Art Deco and His Society Orchestra play a benefit at the Biltmore Hotel for the Glendale-based theater-education charity A Noise Within, (818) 546-2467; and the Palm Beach Trio, with singer Lenetta Kidd and pianist David Moscoe, will fire up the conga lines at Moonlight Tango, (818) 788-2000.

The Don Sweeney SRO Orchestra strikes up at the Normandie Casino, (310) 352-3428; the Sweet and Low Orchestra plays the Alligator Lounge in Santa Monica, (310) 449-1844; the Pat Livingston Orchestra performs at Jimmy’s in Beverly Hills, (310) 552-2394; the Little Big Band is at Atlas, (213) 380-8400; funk band Daddy Voluptuous plays Fais Do-Do, while next door at its sister venue, the Ball, Brazilian band Banda Constel Cao appears, (213) 954-8080.

El Floradita, the tropical restaurant with one of the busiest dance floors in the city, will feature Perico Hernandez y Son Habenero for your salsa dancing pleasure, (213) 871-8612. Cava hosts the Brazilian band of Marcos Santos, (213) 658-8898; Through the Fire plays at Cha Cha Cha Encino, (818) 789-3600; and the New Caribbean Steel Drum Band plays at the restaurant Calypso in West Los Angeles, (310) 477-4255. Both Cha Cha Cha Encino and Calypso will host magicians, fortunetellers and balloon artists in addition to the bands.

The Rolling Stones-inspired group Sticky Fingers rocks St. Mark’s in Venice, (310) 452-2222 and harmonica player Lee Oskar, formerly of War, blows into the Baked Potato in Pasadena, (818) 564-1122.

Jazz fans can start celebrating early when piano legend Dave Brubeck and his group present his cantata “The Gates of Justice” as well as other selections at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 3300 Wilshire Blvd., (818) 226-9269. The show’s at 5:30 p.m. and costs $30.

From there, the action switches to the Hollywood Park Casino, where vocalist Dee Dee McNeil teams with a six-piece band that includes former Ray Charles saxophonist Rickey Woodard, (800) 808-5825. Bassist Christian McBride, a guy who knows his way around both be-bop and James Brown, toasts the new year with his quartet at Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood, (213) 466-2210; contemporary saxophonist Boney James and guitarist Norman Brown each lead bands at the Strand in Redondo Beach, (310) 316-1700; keyboardist Les McCann storms into Typhoon at the Santa Monica Airport, (310) 390-6565; Jimmie Maddin’s Happy Blues-Jazz Train chugs into Chadney’s in Burbank, (818) 843-5333; and the Billy Childs-Joe LaBarbera Quartet entertains at a buffet dinner at the Jazz Bakery in Culver City, (310) 271-9039.

The big jazz event of the season is New Year’s Jazz at Indian Wells, (310) 799-6055, a four-day event that climaxes in the wee hours Jan. 1 with two different parties, one dedicated to traditional jazz, the other to rhythm and blues. Three different Indian Wells hotels play host.

Those out for laughs (and who isn’t?) would do well to check out the Best of the Groundlings at the Groundlings Theater, (213) 934-9700; the L.A. Connection at the Comedy Theatre in Sherman Oaks, (818) 784-1868; or the celebrity quote-fest comedy “Loose Lips,” with guest narrator Fred Savage, at the Santa Monica Playhouse, (310) 394-9779.

The Queen Mary, (310) 435-3511, plans a royal celebration, with seven different music venues, a host of restaurants and an expected 6,000 revelers. Everything from big band to country and western sounds will be offered, and fireworks are scheduled for 12:30 a.m.

There are also some more unusual choices for new year’s as well. How better to start the year than with a bit of exercise while you do something for your soul? The Sierra Club, (310) 479-5717, again offers its Welcome in the New Year Hike, an easy-to-moderate round-trip stroll of roughly six miles along a well-marked fire road that puts you on top of the Santa Monica Mountains with a view of the city lights at midnight. More than 230 people made the trek last year. Nonmembers are welcome.

Or, you can put a little suspense in your new year’s with a journey on Keith and Margo’s Murder Mystery Train. The train, a rolling whodunit theater, leaves Union Station on New Year’s Eve and arrives that night in San Diego.

Along the way, some foul play, as well as some partying, takes place. Participants work to unravel the mystery during the trip and during their stay at San Diego’s Westgate Hotel. Travelers arrive back at Union Station the next day. The $395 price includes round-trip travel, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres en route, hotel transfers and accommodations, a dinner, party and brunch on Jan. 1 as well as the usual party supplies.

Similar one-night events will take place on New Year’s Eve at Madame Wu’s in Santa Monica, the Mission Inn in Riverside and Scott’s Grill in Costa Mesa. Keep your eye on the butler. Information for all these events: (818) 785-7700.

And for those who still believe there’s no place like home for the holidays, there’s always Dick Clark, who’ll ring in the new year for the 24th consecutive time on ABC, beginning at 11:30 p.m. Clark will be joined by Jamie Walters (“Beverly Hills, 90210”) and Yasmine Bleeth (“Baywatch”) to report on the festivities from Times Square, Hollywood and other celebrations. Is there a better way to ring in the new year than with a guy who never gets any older?

Also contributing to this story were members of the Calendar staff.