April Stevens, 'Teach Me Tiger' & 'Deep Purple' Siren, Then And Now

By | May 9, 2021

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April Stevens as she appeared on the cover of her album 'Teach Me Tiger.' Source: Amazon.com

April Stevens is a pop star of the early '60s whose biggest hit, "Deep Purple," reached #1 on the Billboard chart in 1963. Stevens often worked with her younger brother, Nino Tempo, and also had hits with "I'm In Love Again" and "Teach Me, Tiger," although the latter had some difficulty getting airplay because some radio stations considered it too sexually suggestive. Like other American pop singers of the early '60s, Stevens saw her career take a big hit when The Beatles arrived and dominated the American charts in 1964.

April Stevens Recorded Her First Song In Her Teens

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Source: (Pinterest).

April Stevens was born Carol Lo Tempio on April 29, 1929 in Niagara Falls, NY, although some websites claim she was born in 1936. When she was 12, her family moved to Los Angeles, California, where her brother, Antonino Lo Tempio, began to study the clarinet, and then changed to the saxophone. April, who was then still called Carol, was browsing in record stores, and one day, while she was outside Wallach’s Music City, the owner of Laurel Records, Tony Sepe, asked her whether she could sing or not. She said yes, and before long she had changed her name to April and was recording for Laurel Records. Sepe asked her to record a song called “No, No, No, Not That.” At the time she was still in high school, and the song was a bit racy, and under the suggestion that she needed to protect her own name, she chose the first name April because she liked the name; as for the last name, it was the name of someone who worked at the label. While she was still in high school, she went on to record “Don’t Do It” for Society Records, a song which was banned from airplay because of its suggestive lyrics. However, the song did lead her to success in another way, as Henri Rene, of RCA, heard “Don’t Do It” and was drawn to the sound of her vocals, asking her to record with him. In June 1951, he released Cole Porter’s “I’m in Love Again,” with Stevens as the featured vocalist. The song remained on the charts for 15 weeks and peaked at No. 6.