April, Deep Purple and the Years of the Rabbit?🐇

April Stevens
(April 29, 1929 – April 17, 2023)

"April Stevens passed away on April 17 in Phoenix, Arizona, less than two weeks before what would have been her 94th birthday [April 29th]."

"Stevens was best known for her 1963 [The Year of the Water Rabbit] Atco recording of "Deep Purple" (music originally composed for piano by Peter DeRose [died April 23, 1953]and lyrics by Mitchell Parish [March 31st, 1993]) with her brother Antonino LoTempio (singing under the stage name Nino Tempo."

April Stevens, who was born and died in April, passes away 60 years after her biggest selling single 'Deep Purple' hit #1 in 1963, the Year of the Water Rabbit and this year is 2023, the Year of the Water Rabbit?

Donnie and Marie had a hit with the same song in 1975, the Year of the Rabbit?

And it was even a hit in 1939, the Year of the Rabbit?

The British rock band Deep Purple got their name from Pete De Rose's hit, as it was the favourite song of guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's grandmother; she would also play the song on piano.
Pete De Rose died in April, 1953 and Ritchie Blackmore was born in April, 1945.

However, the band never recorded or performed the song.

Deep Purple did however have a song named April.

The Tempo/Stevens version was intended as the B-side of a song called "I've Been Carrying a Torch for You So Long That It Burned a Great Big Hole in My Heart". 

However, radio stations preferred "Deep Purple". 

"I've Been Carrying a Torch..." held the distinction of having the longest title, at 67 letters, of a flipside of a Billboard number-one record. The B-side of Prince's 1984 number-one hit "When Doves Cry", titled "17 Days (the rain will come down, then U will have 2 choose, if U believe, look 2 the dawn and U shall never lose)", is now the longest such flipside title, with 85 letters and numbers.

Ironically, Prince passed away in April, also ... and we all know how much he loved purple.

Sometimes It Snows in April