April Stevens

Caroline Vincinette LoTempio (April 29, 1929 – April 17, 2023), known professionally as April Stevens, was an American Grammy Award-winning singer of traditional pop, best known for her collaborations with her younger brother, Nino Tempo, as Nino Tempo & April Stevens. Stevens was an inductee in the Niagara Falls Music Hall of Fame

Stevens was born in Niagara Falls, New York, as Caroline Vincinette LoTempio, to Samuel and Anna Lo Tempio, both descended from Italian immigrants from Sicily.

Stevens began her recording career in 1951, aged twenty-two. Her most popular solo recording was her RCA Victor rendition of "I'm in Love Again", written by Cole Porter. Accompanied by an orchestra arranged and conducted by Henri René, the song peaked at number 6 on the pop charts in 1951. Her follow-up, "Gimme a Little Kiss, Will Ya, Huh?", made it to number 10 later that year, and her next release, "And So to Sleep Again", hit #27.

Stevens returned to the US charts in 1959 with the song "Teach Me Tiger", which caused a minor uproar for its sexual suggestiveness and consequently did not receive airplay on many radio stations. The song peaked at No. 86 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Stevens was best known for her 1963 Atco recording of "Deep Purple" (music originally composed for piano by Peter DeRose and lyrics by Mitchell Parish) with her brother Antonino LoTempio (singing under the stage name Nino Tempo). A standard that Larry Clinton and his orchestra and band vocalist Bea Wain had popularized in 1939 and Bing Crosby also had a hit recording with, the Stevens and Tempo version reached no. 1 on the Hot 100 on November 16, 1963, and number 17 on the British chart. It featured an appearance by Glen Campbell, who played as a session musician. The song won the 1963 Grammy Award for Best Rock and Roll Recording. It sold over one million copies and was certified Gold. Nino and April never attained another number 1, as their style of jazz-influenced pop gave way to the British Invasion, especially the Beatles.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.