April Stevens and Nino Tempo: "I Love How You Love Me" and "Hey Baby"
An outstanding top tune in my view, sung by a popular brother/sister duo of the mid-sixties who started out life in Niagra Falls, New York. I have to admit it's the bagpipes that I really dig most of all here in the song above, with honorable mention to the voice of the charming April Stevens (1929-). Nino Tempo was no musical slouch either; he is a versatile musician who also had an acting career in films like "Breakfast at Tiffanys" and played alto sax at Carnegie Hall!
Their biggest hit as a duo (April had her own singing career as a single performer) was their Grammy winning version of the old standard "Deep Purple". It holds the sad distinction of hitting the Number One song slot on the Billboard charts the same week as the President Kennedy Assassination. This next tune gives us a chance to see April and Nino performing on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" with another standard, "Hey Baby".
These songs are classics Doug, my older brother had these records and I grew up hearing these in Mono with 45s stacked up and each dropping on top of the last one in pure mechanical poetry...they are still great to hear so thanks for posting them Doug. These songs were on the eve of the Beatles and all that happened from around 1963 until the end of that decade. Interesting that April and Nino were top of the hit parade when JFK became the biggest hit of them all courtesy of I'm not really sure who? Nevertheless good times when all we had to worry about was whether someone else would walk our baby home and if the last dance was saved for him because we don't dance all that much anyway. All good stuff Doug... models of wholesome consumerism and corporate globalism but the songs were really good as well and so its great to be reminded of them..
Yes, AA, I agree these songs are classics worth revisiting. I remember my parents having a similar "stacking" set-up on the living room "hi-fi" which was a cross between a AM/FM radio receiver and a piece of furniture with a record player thrown in. There is something about that period--hindsight is all 20/20 and all that but one can't help thinking that popular music changed so rapidly in the 1960's in part because for the first time young people were feeling both empowered and discontented. The Beatles of the early days compared to the same band who did "Sgt'Pepper" and "The White Album" seem like two different bands, and yet they were just three years apart. Almost all the bands from north and south of England that made it big in America like The Stones and The Animals followed suit and by 1967 the West Coast music sound in California woke up from dreams of sunny beaches and daydream summer romances. "The Beach Boys", for instance, were inspired to greater heights thanks to the musical genius of Brian Wilson, who said he was inspired by the music of Lennon and McCartney from "Revolver".
The music of Nino and April gives us a romantic oasis to revisit from time to time.
These songs are classics Doug, my older brother had these records and I grew up hearing these in Mono with 45s stacked up and each dropping on top of the last one in pure mechanical poetry...they are still great to hear so thanks for posting them Doug. These songs were on the eve of the Beatles and all that happened from around 1963 until the end of that decade. Interesting that April and Nino were top of the hit parade when JFK became the biggest hit of them all courtesy of I'm not really sure who? Nevertheless good times when all we had to worry about was whether someone else would walk our baby home and if the last dance was saved for him because we don't dance all that much anyway. All good stuff Doug... models of wholesome consumerism and corporate globalism but the songs were really good as well and so its great to be reminded of them..
ReplyDeleteYes, AA, I agree these songs are classics worth revisiting. I remember my parents having a similar "stacking" set-up on the living room "hi-fi" which was a cross between a AM/FM radio receiver and a piece of furniture with a record player thrown in. There is something about that period--hindsight is all 20/20 and all that but one can't help thinking that popular music changed so rapidly in the 1960's in part because for the first time young people were feeling both empowered and discontented. The Beatles of the early days compared to the same band who did "Sgt'Pepper" and "The White Album" seem like two different bands, and yet they were just three years apart. Almost all the bands from north and south of England that made it big in America like The Stones and The Animals followed suit and by 1967 the West Coast music sound in California woke up from dreams of sunny beaches and daydream summer romances. "The Beach Boys", for instance, were inspired to greater heights thanks to the musical genius of Brian Wilson, who said he was inspired by the music of Lennon and McCartney from "Revolver".
DeleteThe music of Nino and April gives us a romantic oasis to revisit from time to time.
I'm glad I could bring back some good memories.