1963 Songs: Deep Purple

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Three. That’s the ruling from the National Weather Service. There were two EF1 tornadoes and an EF2. No severe weather for the next seven days, they say! You might want a storm to blow this song away, though. Here’s another tune turning 60 this year. Deep Purple - Nino Tempo and April Stevens No, Grouchy, not the band. An interesting thing, though: the band Deep Purple took their name from this song. Ritchie Blackmore said that this was his grandmother’s favorite song. This song goes back to the 30s, when it was an instrumental. Mitchell Parish put lyrics to the song later in the decades and made it the song we know today. This version was by brother and sister duo Nino Tempo and April Stevens (real names: Antonio and Carol LoTempio). They weren’t going to release this as a single. The intended “hit” was called “I’ve Been Carrying a Torch for You for So Long That It Burned a Great Big Hole in My Heart” (ha, it’s NOT a country song! ), but April insisted this would make the better choice. And the part where April talks the lyrics while Nino sings them came from the demo where he forgot the words and she whispered them to him. Nino is 88; April will be 94 at the end of the month. This is their lasting contribution to music. Deep Purple Written by Peter DeRose and Mitchell Parish Recorded by Nino Tempo and April Stevens From Deep Purple, 1963 And the stars begin to twinkle: