The Bigger Picture

45 Insert: Nino Tempo and April Stevens

by Bob Moses

Nino Tempo and April Stevens: "I Love How You Love Me"

We’re just going to stay with the Valentine’s Day love hangover, still basking in the glow from our R. Stevie release. After Stevie, you want a little Nino Tempo and April Stevens to keep the candle burning.

One of pop’s most colorful, multi-genre brother-sister acts, Nino Tempo and April Stevens set their course to stardom from Niagara Falls, New York, where 7-year Antonio LoTiempo joined Benny Goodman onstage for an impromptu encore. In LA, where Nino became a sax player working with Maynard Ferguson’s bands, his sister Carol started recording as April Stevens for local independent labels while still in high school. Her alluring, nearly salacious blend of teenage innocence and barely-in-check sensuality caught the ear of larger labels, and yielded an under-the-counter hit in 1950 with “Don’t Do It,” the two-minute tale of a teenage girl’s dilemma that begins with an eager, “Hey, it looks like we’re out of gas!” “Oh, Billy…” In 1959, April reached Billboard’s #86 with “Teach Me Tiger,” a kind-of all-grown-up seduction in song (have a listen here).

April Stevens and Nino Tempo

Through the late 50s into 1960, Nino and April were making the Hollywood scene, Nino appearing in minor film roles and playing with the famed Wrecking Crew for Phil Spector and Bobby Darin sessions. Ahmet Ertegun heard Nino at the piano and, remembering the nightclub act with April, signed them to Atco. A few minor regional hits were followed by a number-one romantic smash in 1963: “Deep Purple.” I remember “Deep Purple” as the background of many parental cocktail parties. The song must have been reassuring to the suburban young-parent crowd as it was a 1939 standard reconceived for the 60s pop charts.

Nino Tempo and April Stevens with Phil Spector
Nino and April moved on with the times that were a-changin’ by bringing a folk-rock band and a bagpipe (!) to their signature sentimentality. “I Love How You Love Me” has to be one of the more bizarre arrangements to hit the charts, but it certainly illustrates Nino’s time spent assisting Phil Spector. There’s a certain genius in hearing bagpipes as just having the same timbre as trebly, twinned guitars.

We’ll have much more on Nino and April soon ‘cause we just can’t leave it alone.

Teach Me Tiger

Previously in 45 Insert:
Sugarloaf
Emitt Rhodes
Classics IV

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