April Stevens (born Caroline Vincinette LoTempio; April 29, 1929) is an American singer best known for her collaborations with her younger brother,

Nino Tempo Nino Tempo (born Antonino LoTempio; January 6, 1935) is an American musician, singer, and actor. He was a duet partner with his older sister April Stevens as well as the frontman for a 1970s funk band, 5th Ave. Sax. Career Antonino LoTempio w ...

Biography

Stevens has recorded since she was twenty two years old. Her most popular solo recording was her RCA Victor recording of "I'm in Love Again" (music and lyrics by Cole Porter). Accompanied by an orchestra arranged and conducted by

Henri René Henri René (born Harold Manfred Kirchstein; December 29, 1906 – April 25, 1993), was an American musician who had an international career in the recording industry as a producer, composer, conductor and arranger. Early years Born in New York ...

, Stevens' recording peaked at No. 6 on the pop chart in 1951. Her follow-up, "Gimme Me a Little Kiss, Will Ya, Huh?" made it to No. 10 later that year, and her next release, "And So to Sleep Again", hit #27. Stevens returned to the U.S. chart in 1959 with the song "Teach Me Tiger", which caused a minor uproar for its sexual suggestiveness and consequently did not receive

airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

on many radio stations. The song peaked at No. 86 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The tune was featured in the 2006 film '' Blind Dating'', the 2011 Flemish drama film '' North Sea Texas'', season 5, episode 7 of ''

Call the Midwife ''Call the Midwife'' is a BBC period drama series about a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s and 1960s. The principal cast of the show has included Jessica Raine, Miranda Hart, Helen George, Bryony Ha ...

'', and recurs throughout season 1 of the Russian thriller series ''

To the Lake ''To the Lake'' (russian: Эпидемия, ), is a Russian post-apocalyptic thriller television series launched on the Premier platform on 14 November 2019. The first season of the show is based on ''Vongozero'', a novel by Russian author Yana ...

''. Stevens is best known for her 1963

Atco Records ATCO Records is an American record label founded in 1955. It is owned by Warner Music Group and operates as an imprint of Atlantic Records. After several decades of dormancy and infrequent activity under alternating Warner Music labels, the comp ...

recording of " Deep Purple" (music by

Peter DeRose Peter DeRose (or De Rose) (March 10, 1896 – April 23, 1953) was an American composer of jazz and pop music during the era of Tin Pan Alley. Biography A native of New York City, he showed a gift for all things musical at an early age. He lea ...

and lyrics by

Mitchell Parish Mitchell Parish (born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky; July 10, 1900 – March 31, 1993) was an American lyricist, notably as a writer of songs for stage and screen. Biography Parish was born to a Jewish family in Lithuania, Russian Empire in July 190 ...

) with her brother Antonino LoTempio (singing under the stage name

). A

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...

song that

Larry Clinton Larry Clinton (August 17, 1909 – May 2, 1985) was an American musician, best known as a trumpeter who became a prominent American bandleader and arranger. Biography Clinton was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States. He became a ver ...

and His Orchestra and band vocalist

Bea Wain Beatrice Ruth Wain (April 30, 1917 – August 19, 2017) was an American Big Band-era singer and radio personality born in the Bronx, New York City. She had several hits with Larry Clinton and His Orchestra, including "My Reverie", "Deep Purple" ...

had popularized in 1939, the Stevens and Tempo version reached No.1 on the Hot 100 on November 16, 1963, and No.17 in the British charts. The song won the 1963

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

for Best Rock and Roll Recording. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a

Gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. The duo also enjoyed a 1964 follow-up hit in the U.S. with the standard song "

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" (music by

Vincent Rose Vincent Rose ''(né'' Vincenzo Cacioppo; 13 June 1880 Palermo, Italy – 20 May 1944 Rockville Centre, New York) was an Italian-born American violinist, pianist, composer, and bandleader. Career Rose holds one of the longest histories as a ban ...

and lyrics by Richard Coburn (pseudonym of Frank Reginald DeLong; 1886–1952) and John Schonberger). The recording, which had an arrangement similar to their recording of "Deep Purple", reached No. 11 on the Hot 100 singles chart. They also had chart success with "All Strung Out", which reached No. 26 on the American Hot 100 in 1966. Later that year, the single "The Coldest Night of the Year" was released on Atlantic 584048 in the UK. A solo single by Stevens was issued in December 1967, a double-sided single of "Wanting You" with "Falling in Love Again" on MGM 1366 in the UK and MGM K 13825 in the US. "Wanting You" became a Northern soul classic. In the

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, the duo enjoyed a No. 5 hit in early 1973 with their version of "

(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story "(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story" is a popular song published in 1970, with music by Francis Lai and lyrics by Carl Sigman. The song was first introduced as an instrumental theme in the 1970 film ''Love Story'' after the film's distributor, Para ...

". In her 2013 autobiography, ''Teach Me Tiger'', Stevens said she was born in 1929. She admitted to taking years off her age, and her brother, Nino, going along with it. This was supposedly due to their competition with acts in their late teens and early twenties that were dominating the record charts in the 1960s.

Awards

* 1963 — Nino Tempo & April Stevens' rendition of "Deep Purple" received a

for Best Rock & Roll Recording.

Discography

Albums

* ''Teach Me Tiger'' ( Imperial, 1960) * ''Alone'' (Mr. Sam, 1985) * ''A Very Special Time'' (Asia Record, 1989) * ''Carousel Dreams'' (USA Music Group, 1990)

Singles

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, April 1929 births Living people American women pop singers American pop rock singers Traditional pop music singers American women rock singers Imperial Records artists King Records artists RCA Victor artists Musicians from Niagara Falls, New York American people of Italian descent Grammy Award winners 21st-century American women