The Tempests

North Carolina’s the Tempests produced a solid LP and several non-album 45s during the late 1960s, delivering punchy, horn-driven, upbeat soul rooted in the beach-music style without ever achieving widespread national recognition. Brothers Roger Branch on guitar and Michael Branch on keyboards founded the outfit, which later expanded to a ten-piece ensemble—unusually large even within the beach-music scene—featuring two trumpets, two saxophones, and an organ. The sole Black member was lead singer Hazel Martin; the rest of the group was white, and her commanding yet faintly theatrical vocals stood out as a central strength. Their debut single, “Would You Believe!,” reached number 127 on the charts, registering just below the Billboard Top 100, yet further national traction never materialized. Still, the band secured a full album on the Smash label, also titled Would You Believe!, that consisted primarily of robust original songs whose tone stayed almost consistently exuberant. A pair of additional non-LP singles followed. In 2007 the album returned on CD, accompanied by historical liner notes and both of those earlier 45s included as bonus tracks.