A Feel-Good Favorite

It’s Wednesday night at the Brass Monkey, and someone is singing, as if her life depended on it, “Love! Love will keep us together!” A love for singing like Toni Tenille--or Frank Sinatra or Olivia Newton-John--seems to keep everyone together at this ski-lodge-cum-karaoke-lounge in Ko-reatown.

Housed in a Mid-Wilshire office building, the Brass Monkey is arguably L.A.’s best feel-good karaoke bar; it’s a veritable love shack for all closet pop superstars. With a low-priced two-drink minimum to sing, this hideaway draws a formidable crowd each night, featuring locals, a Frank Sinatra-crooning suit-and-tie set, industry folk and a smattering of celebrities.

“A lot of the nightclubs in L.A. have got a cover charge, so they’ve got them migrating south to Koreatown,” says owner Alan Spear, who mans the bar along with his son, Steven.

Where else can you see comedian Margaret Cho and friends belting out an emotional “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler? Or find L.A.’s new mayor and his cronies power-lunching? Celebrities and politicos aside, the Brass Monkey’s low-key family atmosphere and zero-pretension factor packs ‘em in every night. Just ogling the song list is entertaining: hits ranging from those by the Captain and Tenille, Bon Jovi, Donna Summer, Murray Head and the Clash to Al Green, the Beatles and Tina Turner.

Singing starts at 9 p.m., so turn in song requests early to emcee Arnold Rivera.

“We used to have a Korean guy who used to sing ‘La Bamba’ in Spanish, doing the gyrations and kicking his leg over the mike. He was one of our regulars, but we haven’t seen him in a while,” says Spear.

You’ll hear “a lot of Frank Sinatra,” says Rivera. “Someone’s always singing ‘Strangers in the Night.”’ There’s something comforting, too, about the sweet older man who, like clockwork, comes to sing Willie Nelson’s “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before.” You’ll find many girls belting out “the female national anthem,” says Rivera. “I get requests for ‘I Will Survive’ by Gloria Gaynor twice a night.”

Recently bowled over by the dwindling dot-com economy, customer Hilary Hull says singing at the Brass Monkey is great, “especially if you’ve been laid off.” Or if someone’s got “post-breakup blues, or when you’ve just seen a great concert and you have the urge to jump up on stage yourself.”

The Brass Monkey is “small but loose,” says Rivera. “You walk in and relax and everybody’s treated the same. Just recently, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were here singing ‘Hey Jude.”’ InStyle magazine recently dubbed the Brass Monkey “the best karaoke in Los Angeles,” says Spear, who’s worked the bar for 23 years.

“I was here before [this place] was known as Koreatown, and the area’s really been brought back, that’s the truth.” Bar items include the Funky Monkey, Chocolate Monkey, Spank the Monkey and Hornie Monkey. There’s also a mean shrimp cocktail and a Japanese noodle and sushi menu.

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Brass Monkey, 659 S. Mariposa Ave., L.A. 21 and older. Open for lunch and dinner Mondays to Fridays, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 2 a.m. No cover. Two-drink minimum for karaoke. (213) 381-7047.