| Nino Tempo is best known for his duets with his sister, April Stevens, which produced a number of popular recordings in the 1960's, notably "Deep Purple." His actual career began in the 1940's when he became a child film actor, first appearing unbilled in "The Story of G.I. Joe" (1945) and "George White's Scandals" (1945), then with credit in "The Red Pony" (1949). Tempo played in high school dance bands, then began to carve out a career as a session musician, playing the saxophone as well as eventually arranging and composing for artists like Rosemary Clooney, Steve Lawrence, and Eydie Gorme, and he also worked intermittently as a big band musician for Horace Heidt and Maynard Ferguson. He continued to appear in movies, too, usually musicals, playing a character based on Benny Goodman in "The Glenn Miller Story" (1954), performing in "The Girl Can't Help It" (1956), and taking small parts in "Johnny Trouble" (1957), "Bop Girl" (1957), and "Operation Petticoat" (1959). During the 1950's he released several singles and albums to various degrees of success, never fully establishing himself as a solo artist. Tempo went back to playing sessions, becoming a full-fledged member of producer Phil Spector's studio band, known informally as "the Wrecking Crew," and was at a session for Bobby Darin, who recorded for Atlantic Records, when he met Atlantic president Ahmet Ertegun and pitched him on recording his duet act with his sister. Ertegun signed the two to Atlantic's Atco subsidiary. After three stalled singles Tempo persuaded Ertegun to release their revival of the 1939 song "Deep Purple," a recording Ertegun considered so bad it was embarrassing. Record buyers disagreed. Issued in the summer of 1963 "Deep Purple" hit number one in November. It also won the 1963 Grammy Award for Best Rock & Roll Recording. The "Deep Purple" LP reached the Top 100. Over the next several years, the siblings released singles on White Whale, MGM, Bell, and Atco without getting onto the charts. By 1972, Tempo and Stevens were on A&M Records, where their second single for the label, "Put It Where You Want It," charted in June 1973. They also recorded separately for A&M, and Tempo scored his first solo hit with "Sister James," billed to Nino Tempo and 5th Ave. Sax, which hit the pop Top 40 in October 1973 and also made the easy listening charts. He followed it in 1974 with three more solo singles but none of these records sold. After a brief stint on Chelsea Records in 1976 Tempo was back on A&M in time for the disco-era. The 1979 12" single of "Hooked On Young Stuff" billed as Nino Tempo & 5th Ave Sax. received no club play and was another of those horrible disco outtings that should never have been. Next he placed three tracks on the soundtrack to "The Idolmaker," which charted in December 1980. But after that, he retired from record-making for a decade until he produced and played on Stevens' 1990 comeback album "Carousel Dreams." Then he played at a memorial service for Atlantic Records co-founder Nesuhi Ertegun and as a result was re-signed to the label as a jazz instrumentalist. He made three albums, "Tenor Saxophone" (1990), "Nino" (1992), and "Live At Cicada" (1995). In 1996, he and Stevens recorded a new track, a version of the old Benny Goodman/Peggy Lee hit "Why Don't You Do Right?," for the Varèse Sarabande compilation "Sweet and Lovely: The Best of Nino Tempo & April Stevens." By then, brother and sister were living in semi-retirement in Arizona. |
