Hey, Baby! - The Nino Tempo and April Stevens Anthology

pop duos were all the rage in 1963, with paul and paula, dick and dee dee, steve and eydie and dale and grace all registering big hits. coolest of them all was the nino and april twosome - nino tempo and his sexy-voiced sister april stevens. other nino and april cds exist, but none quite like this one, which covers the grammy-winning duo's entire recording career, which began in the 1950s and lasted for over 40 years. the tracks here are drawn from eight different labels. their moment of glory came in 1963, when their memorable revamp of tin pan alley evergreen 'deep purple' shot to number 1. over the next couple of years they gave a string of other oldies the distinctive nino and april treatment, all cut for atlantic records. among them was an eyebrow-raising interpretation of the paris sisters' 'i love how you love me' complete with bagpipes, something of a cult favourite these days. in 1966 they switched to the hip white whale label out of los angeles, home to the turtles et al. there they updated their sound with lush singles such as 'all strung out' and 'the habit of loving you baby', on which they came to beating their pal phil spector at his own wall of sound game.