April Stevens, 93, teamed with brother Nino Tempo for No. 1 hit song in 1963

For one night in October 1999, April Stevens was a star again.

“It just makes you feel good to be remembered after all these years. What could be better than that?” she said in her acceptance speech as she and her brother, Nino Tempo, were inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame. 

“We’re not exactly a popular group these days,” she added, “but it’s very special to be honored on a night like this in your hometown.”

It was 1963 when they topped the charts with their surprise hit single, a remake of “Deep Purple,” a pop standard from the 1930s. Although Ms. Stevens had stepped away from her singing career, the two of them had hoped to reunite for the Hall of Fame induction, but her brother, who was in Los Angeles, couldn’t attend.

Ms. Stevens died April 17, less than two weeks before her 94th birthday, in her home in Scottsdale, Ariz., where she had lived for many years.

Born Caroline Vincinette LoTempio in Niagara Falls, the daughter of a grocer and granddaughter of immigrants from Sicily, she showed her talents as a singer while she was still in grade school. At the age of 12, she performed with the St. Joseph’s church choir on radio station WHLD. When bandleader Jimmy Dorsey played Buffalo the following year, she brought him a homemade record.

Her mother decided to move the family to Los Angeles so Carol and her younger brother Antonino could make the most of their talents. Her brother had sung onstage with Benny Goodman as a boy and, as Nino Tempo, developed into a sought-after jazz saxophonist, playing with Maynard Ferguson’s band and becoming part of the fabled group of session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew.

Ms. Stevens, meanwhile, graduated from Belmont High School in the Westlake community of L.A. and changed her name as she began her career as a torch singer.

By 1951, she was releasing a series of singles for RCA Victor and making an impact with her guest appearances on network…