New Kids on the Block

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New Kids on the Block was a boy band, and enjoyed enormous success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Assembled in Boston in 1984 by producer Maurice Starr, the members consisted of brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood. The group went on to sell over 70 million albums worldwide^[1] , generated hundreds of millions of dollars in concert revenues, and paved the way for acts like Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC.

In the early 1980s, Maurice Starr discovered R&B/Pop quintet New Edition, and guided their early success. After breaking ties with them, Starr and his business partner, Mary Alford, sought to create a white counterpart act. Auditions were held around Boston, at which some 500 teen-aged boys auditioned. Among them was 15-year-old Donnie Wahlberg, who immediately impressed Starr and Alford, and would become the first member.

Wahlberg assisted in helping to recruit other members. Among them were his younger brother Mark and his best friend Danny Wood. Wahlberg later coaxed former classmates Jonathan Knight and Jordan Knight, both of whom had exceptional singing voices, into joining. As the group began to take shape, Mark Wahlberg became disillusioned with its direction and opted to quit. Another of Mark's neighborhood friends, Jaime Kelley, took his place. Kelley, though, would eventually be dismissed for lack of concentration and discipline. Starr replaced him with 12-year-old Joey McIntyre, whom the other guys initially resented for being the one to replace their friend. With the final line-up in place, Starr rehearsed the boys diligently and scored the group (which was being called Nynuk) a record deal at Columbia Records. The label, however, demanded Starr change the name of the group. Subsequently they settled on New Kids on the Block, after a rap song that Donnie Wahlberg had written for the album.

In April 1986, Columbia Records released the group's self-titled debut album. The album, almost exclusively written and produced by Maurice Starr, featured mid 80s bubblegum pop material. The first single, "Be My Girl" received minor airplay around the group's native Boston, but failed to capture nationwide attention. The album's second single, "Stop It Girl," fared even worse. Subsequently, the album was commercially unsuccessful until their later popularity boosted sales of it. Starr remained diligent and persuaded the label to allow the group to record a second album. The album, however, would later go on to be certified triple platinum, largely on the strength of the popularity the group attained with their Hangin' Tough album.

After the failure of the first album, Starr had the group back in the studio for most of 1987 and 1988 recording their second album. The album's first single was "Please Don't Go Girl," a ballad released in spring 1988. Failure seemed destined a second time when the song became another that went unnoticed by the listening public, and Columbia Records made plans to drop the New Kids from the label. At the eleventh hour, however, a radio station in Florida began playing the song. Scoring listener approval, it soon became the most requested song on their play list. When Columbia caught wind of the positive response, they decided to keep the group on its roster and put more effort into promoting the single. National attention soon followed and it eventually climbed to #10 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Chart—becoming the group's first hit.

New Kids on the Block's second album, Hangin' Tough, was released to modest fanfare in September. In the meantime, the group began making national televised appearances on such music programs as American Bandstand, Showtime At The Apollo, and Soul Train. They later landed a spot as an opening act for fellow teen-pop act Tiffany on the U.S. leg of her concert tour. Sales of Hangin' Tough steadily increased as the group's national attention slowly rose. At year's end, the album's second single "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" was released. The song was given a huge boost when MTV took notice of the group and began playing the video in regular rotation. By early 1989, it cracked the top five. The New Kids hit paydirt with their next single, "I'll Be Loving You (Forever)," which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart in June. The group had been scheduled to open for Tiffany once again on a second tour, but their sudden popularity caused a reversal, and she wound up opening for them (although the two acts were technically billed as "co-headliners.")

More top five singles from Hangin' Tough followed into the summer and fall, including: the title track and "Cover Girl." Columbia Records also released, from the groups previously overlooked debut album, "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind)." The song went top 10 on the strength of the group's popularity and effectively jump-started the sales of that album as well. By the end of 1989, Hangin' Tough had climbed to #1 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart and had gone eight-times platinum. They, subsequently, became the first 'teen' act to garner five top 10 hits from a single album.

Meanwhile, a top ten charting holiday album, Merry, Merry Christmas, was released in the fall—spawning another top 10 hit, "This One's for the Children" and going 2x Platinum in the US. The proceeds were donated to United Cerebral Palsy, the New Kids' favorite charitable cause. Hangin' Tough would go on to spend 132 weeks on the chart, and in January 1990 it won two American Music Awards for "Best Pop/Rock Album", and "Best Pop/Rock Group."

By early 1990, New Kids on the Block had become one of the most popular acts in the world. The following May, they followed up Hangin' Tough with Step by Step, which featured some of the songs co-written by the members themselves. The first single, the title track, raced to #1 on the Hot 100 Singles Chart and became their biggest selling single. It was followed up with the top ten "Tonight," which extended the consecutive top ten singles chart run to an amazing nine records. The album was eventually certified triple platinum, selling close to twenty million copies worldwide.

The group performed an estimated two hundred concerts a year, with an extravagant worldwide concert tour that summer, called The Magic Summer Tour, sponsored by Coke. Their pay-per-view special was the biggest in cable-TV history to that date. During this time, the group became heavily merchandised; more than one hundred and forty products that were licensed with NKOTB trademarks. These included lunch boxes, packing trunks, sleeping bags, pillow cases, T-shirts, comic books, dolls, and even a Saturday morning cartoon in their likeness. That series was on ABC from 1990-91 (with reruns the following year on Disney Channel). Though the band appeared in live action clips, the voices of the New Kids were done by other voice actors (two of them also did Captain Planet). A video game based on the group was set to be introduced for the NES, but was never released.

New Kids on the Block's official fan club had a membership of over one hundred thousand names, and received thirty-thousand letters a day. Approximately one hundred thousand calls per week were dialed to 1-900-909-5KIDS, the Official NKOTB Hotline, as well. The group topped Forbes list of highest paid entertainers of 1990, beating out the likes of Michael Jackson and Madonna. Further capitalizing on the fame, at year's end, Columbia Records released No More Games/The Remix Album—a compilation of the group's biggest hits remixed.

By 1991, the group had become very over-exposed, and public and commercial backlash started to form. Sensing that it was time to give the American market a break, the group released no new material that year, but continued to tour throughout Europe and Asia. That summer, Wood and Wahlberg co-wrote and produced the debut album from Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch—headed by Mark Wahlberg, brother of New Kid Donnie Wahlberg. Mark's album scored a #1 hit with "Good Vibrations," and a platinum album.

As their touring itinerary was nearing its end in early 1992, the group released a new stand-alone single, "If You Go Away." The song became a top 20 hit, peaking at #16 on the charts. Meanwhile, as the music industry was still reeling from the Milli Vanilli lip-synching scandal, the group found themselves accused by a former engineer of not having sung all of the 1988 hit album Hangin' Tough. They immediately struck back, going on a minor publicity blitz to refute the allegation. Culminating with an interview and performance on The Arsenio Hall Show, they managed to successfully quell the claim. Nonetheless, it still didn't stop them from noticing that their popularity had waned as teen-pop had now gone out of fashion. With Gangsta rap and Grunge becoming more popular, the group went into hibernation while plotting their next move.

Faced with the constant derision of people outside their teen market and the maturation of that base, the fact that they themselves were no longer teenagers, and that the type of music that had once made them famous had faded from the lexicon, the group split off from Maurice Starr, shortened their name to NKOTB and attempted to make a comeback in January 1994 with Face the Music.

Their first studio album in close to four years, Face the Music, was a musical departure from the group's previous efforts. In spite of some positive critical reception, the album sold poorly. The group's final single to chart was "Dirty Dawg" (which featured a rap cameo by Nice & Smooth.) The video was banned from Canadian music video network Muchmusic, due to its violent and misogynistic imagery.^[2]

NKOTB went on tour to support the album, but faced with the reality that their time as pop music icons had peaked, were forced to play smaller venues such as clubs and theaters, as opposed to the arenas and stadiums they had become accustomed to playing when they were at the height of their fame. Group member Jonathan Knight, meanwhile, departed the tour early. Shortly thereafter, the remaining four decided to cancel the rest of the tour, and the group disbanded altogether.

After the group's demise, most of the group members started families and began to venture into other avenues.

• Jonathan Knight
  Left the entertainment business and began a new career in real estate.^[1]
• Jordan Knight
  In 1999, Knight released a self-titled solo album, Jordan Knight on Interscope Records. The album was certified gold. He also scored a top 10 hit with "Give It to You," which went platinum.^[3] That summer, Knight opened up for Nsync on their concert tour. He currently continues to record and tour. Knight appeared on VH1's The Surreal Life in 2004, he also appeared in the Five reality show Trust Me - I'm A Holiday Rep, along with British comedian Syd Little and glamour model Jodie Marsh.^[4] His most recent solo album Love Songs was released September 2006.^[5]
• Joe McIntyre
  In 1999, McIntyre released a solo album, Stay the Same, on Columbia Records, scoring a top 10 hit with the album's title track. He has also released further albums Meet Joe Mac, One Too Many — a live compilation album of his work — a pop album 8:09, and most recently, a standards album called Talk to Me.^[6] McIntyre later became a regular on the FOX television show Boston Public^[7] and has performed in Broadway musicals including Wicked.^[8] In 2006, he was a contender on the reality show Dancing with the Stars and toured with the series in a 2006 live show.^[9] He still continues to record music and tour. In 2007, he starred in an independent film titled On Broadway^[10] and released his recent solo album, Talk to Me, was released December 20, 2006
• Danny Wood
  Formed a Boston-based record label. Produces other acts and occasionally performs with other musicians, but largely prefers to remain out of the spotlight. He was featured in MTV's follow up to Totally Scott-Lee called Totally Boyband, as a member of a new group with other former boyband members called Upper Street.^[11] With D-Fuse, he released a 1999 album called Room Full of Smoke. In 2003 he released Second Face^[12], and in 2007 Coming Home.^[13]
• Donnie Wahlberg
  Has followed in the footsteps of his brother Mark Wahlberg, forging a career in acting and appeared in movies such as Ransom (1996), Southie (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), the Saw film series, and the critically-acclaimed mini-series Band of Brothers. He has starred in two short-lived television series: Boomtown and Runaway. In 2007, he starred opposite John Leguizamo on the TV series The Kill Point.^[14]

In 1999, MTV attempted to reunite the group and get them to perform on that year's VMAs. All members were on board, except Jonathan Knight. Consequently the performance didn't happen.^[15]

In 2004, Aamer Haleem, host of VH1's Bands Reunited, also attempted to coerce each of the members of New Kids on the Block to reunite for a one-night performance for the show. This time Jonathan Knight agreed, as did Jordan Knight. However, Joe McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood all declined. McIntyre cited that the only way he would perform with the band was if the group would make the decision to reunite permanently.^[16]

On January 26, 2008, People magazine reported that a New Kids on the Block reunion was in the works. An announcement was expected to be made on the band's once-defunct official website in February 2008.^[17] However, Danny Wood denied the report, stating there has been "no discussion" of a reunion or new tour for the band.^[18]Despite initially denying the reunion rumors on his MySpace blog, Wood posted a follow-up entry stating:

"I wanted to clarify since my first post this morning regarding the NKOTB reunion".

"I loved being a part of the group, and have always thought 'maybe someday we'll get back together' — you just never know when your someday will come.

"I can guarantee all the fans that if this reunion were to happen, they would hear about it first on www.NKOTB.com."^[19]

On January 29, 2008, a previously unreleased song was added to the band's official site, with an accompanying video of the band's career achievements. The video ends with the phrase "Millions of fans around the world await their return" and "Are you ready?", suggesting that a reunion may still be in the works.^[20]

• Main article: New Kids on the Block discography

• New Kids on the Block - April 1, 1986 - #25 (US), #6 (UK)
• Hangin' Tough - September 9, 1988- #1 (US); #1 (UK); #4 (GER)
• Merry, Merry Christmas - September 19, 1989
• Step by Step - May 15, 1990 - #1 (US); #1 (UK); #1 (GER)
• No More Games/The Remix Album - February 11, 1991
• Face the Music - January 25, 1994 - #37 (US); #44 (GER) - #36(UK)

• List of best selling music artists

• Official Website
• New Kids on the Block at All Music Guide
• New Kids on the Block at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com person