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| Birth Name(s) : New Kids On The Block |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
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| Profession:
N/A |
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Full New Kids On The Block Biography
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.
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.
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, Danny and Donnie co-wrote and produced the debut album from Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch—headed by former group member Mark—which scored a #1 hit with "Good Vibration," 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,". Although the song became a top 20 hit (peaking at #16 on the charts), it seemed obvious that the group's popularity was not nearly as big as it had been just a couple years earlier. 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 quickly 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 had a grittier and harder-edged sound. 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 imagery against women (an example being a night time scene of a woman being chased by angry dogs through a forest). 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 subsequently the group disbanded altogether. Jordan announced the end of NKOTB in June 1994, during their final concert date in Massachusetts.
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. Jonathan, this time agreed, as did Jordan. However, Joe, Donnie and Danny all declined. Joe cited that the only way he would reunite with the band is if the group made the decision to get back together themselves. |
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