New Kids on the Block
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New Kids On The Block was a commercially successful boy band of the late 1980s formed in Boston in 1984.
The members of the band were Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight, brother Jonathan Knight, Danny Wood, and Joe McIntyre, all from Boston. Based on R&B/Pop quintet New Edition and assembled by their former manager & producer Maurice Starr, their self-titled first album in 1986 was largely ignored.
They began to be noticed by teenage audiences in 1988 when they opened for Tiffany in her concert tour. Their second album, 1988's Hangin' Tough, sold eight million copies around the world, with three top ten singles: the title track, the saccharine "I'll Be Loving You (Forever)," and "You Got It (The Right Stuff)." In 1989 they were scheduled to open for Tiffany once again, but their sudden popularity caused a reversal where Tiffany opened for them (though the two acts were officially "co-headliners"). Jonathan Knight dated Tiffany around this time.
With saturated coverage in teenage fan magazines and even a short-lived animated television series, they became hugely famous and sold millions more of their next two albums, one a recording of Christmas songs and the other 1990's Step by Step, with some of the songs co-written by the group members.
Faced with the constant derision of people outside their preteen fan base and the maturation of that base, in the 1990s they split off from Starr and released one album of self-composed R&B, Face The Music, which, despite a mildly positive critical reception, sold poorly. The group broke up in 1994.
After the group's demise, Wahlberg and Danny Wood formed a record label, and Wahlberg also produced two albums of his brother Mark Wahlberg, who has gone on to become a successful actor. Joe McIntyre and Jordan Knight each released moderately successful solo albums. Also, McIntyre was a regular on the FOX television show Boston Public and performed in Broadway musicals including Wicked.
More recently, Donnie Wahlberg has been involved in movies such as The Sixth Sense, the critically acclaimed mini-series Band of Brothers and the short-lived police drama series Boomtown in which he played Detective Stevens.
Discography
Albums
- New Kids on the Block (1986) #25 US, #6 UK
- Hangin' Tough (1988) #1 US, #2 UK
- Merry, Merry Christmas (1989) #9 US, #13 UK
- Step by Step (1990) #1 US, #1 UK
- Face the Music (1994) #37 US, #36 UK
- Greatest Hits (1999)
- Super Hits (2001)
Hit singles
- from "Hangin' Tough"
- 1988 "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" #3 US, #1 UK (1989 release)
- 1988 "Please Don't Go Girl" #10 US
- 1989 "Hangin' Tough" #1 US, #1 UK (1990 release)
- 1989 "I'll Be Loving You (Forever)" #1 US, #5 UK (1990 release)
- 1989 "Cover Girl" #2 US, #4 UK (1990 release)
- from "New Kids on the Block"
- 1989 "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)" #8 US, #8 UK (double A-side with Let's Try Again in the UK, 1990 release)
- from "Merry, Merry Christmas"
- 1989 "This One's for the Children" #7 US, #9 UK (1990 release)
- from "Step by Step"
- 1990 "Step by Step" #1 US, #2 UK
- 1990 "Tonight" #7 US, #3 UK
- 1991 "Games" #14 UK
- 1991 "Call It What You Want" #12 UK
- from "Face the Music"
- 1991 "If You Go Away" #16 US (1992 release), #9 UK
- 1994 "Dirty Dawg" #27 UKde:New Kids On The Block