Nino Tempo & April Stevens

Egged on by his grandfather, a seven-year-old Antonino LoTempio – born January 6, 1935, in Niagara Falls, New York - was at a Benny Goodman concert when he went trotting up to the band leader and asked if he could sing a song. So impressed was Goodman by the precocious child, he invited him back to the Buffalo Theatre to perform for the next six nights. His sister Caroline – born April 29, 1929, in Niagara Falls - was something of child protégé as well and, as April Stevens, reached Number 6 in the US charts in 1951 when she sang with Henri Rene's orchestra on the Cole Porter track “I'm In Love Again.” She also scored a solo hit with the 1960 single “Teach Me Tiger.” Under their stage names of Nino Tempo and April Stevens, the siblings found huge success together in 1963 when their version of the big band jazz standard “Deep Purple” topped the US charts and won them the Grammy Award for Best Rock & Roll Record. April's flirtatious, breathy style and Nino's smooth crooning confidence gave the duo more of an edge than most easy listening acts of the time, and their singles “Whispering” and “Stardust” also fared well. The arrival of The Beatles and the beat invasion saw trends change dramatically away from their innocent pop melodies, but they did return in 1966 with the highly regarded Phil Spector produced track “All Strung Out” and the 1967 album of the same name. Nino Tempo continued to work as a session musician for Spector and even played saxophone John Lennon’s album Rock ‘N’ Roll (1975) while April's track “Wanting You” became a Northern Soul club favorite. The duo continued to perform and record well into the 1990s. April Stevens died on April 17, 2023, in Scottsdale, Arizona at the age of 93.

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