New Kids on the Block (later NKOTB) was a boy band that 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, generated hundreds of millions of dollars in concert revenues, and paved the way for acts like Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC.

History

Early years

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.
Donnie 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 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 had written for the album. >

Music

1986: New Kids on the Block (debut 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, New Kids on the Block wound up flopping. Starr remained diligent and persuaded the label to allow the group to record a second album. (Note: Though a commercial failure upon its original release, 'New Kids on the Block' would eventually go triple platinum, in response to the group's later popularity.)

1988-1989: Hangin' Tough

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 US 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 ten 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 ten 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." 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."

1990-1991: Step by Step

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 Nintendo Entertainment System, 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, 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.

1992: Allegations of lip synching, and waning popularity

As their touring itinerary was nearing its end in early 1992, the group released a new stand-alone single, "If You Go Away," which peaked at #16 on the charts but sold only 600,000 copies. 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.

1993-1994: Face the Music

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 an 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.

Post-New Kids on the Block

In 1999, during the teen pop revival, MTV attempted to reunite the group and get them to perform on that year's VMA's. All members were on board, except Jonathan. Consequently the performance didn't happen.
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.
After the group's demise, most of the group members married and started families, and began to venture into other avenues.

• Jonathan Knight
  Left the entertainment business altogether and began a new career in real estate.

• Jordan Knight
  In 1999, during a teen pop revival 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. That summer, Jordan also opened up for Nsync on their concert tour. He currently continues to record and tour. Knight appeared on VH-1'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. His most recent solo album Love Songs was released September 2006.

• Joe McIntyre
  In 1999, during a teen pop revival, released a solo album, Stay the Same, on Columbia Records. Scored a top 20 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. McIntyre later became a regular on the FOX television show Boston Public and has performed in Broadway musicals including Wicked. He starred in an independent film titled On Broadway which debuts in April 2007. In 2006, Joe was a contender on the reality show Dancing with the Stars and toured with them in a 2006 live show. He still continues to record music and tour. On April 13, 2007 he appeared at the Red Room Pub in Raleigh, NC with 3114 patrons in attendance. 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 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. With D-Fuse, he released a 1999 album called Room Full of Smoke. In 2003 he released Second Face and in 2007 Coming Home. On April 8, 2007, Danny performed acoustic before 10 paid attendees at Iota Club & Cafe in Arlington, VA.

• Donnie Wahlberg
  Has followed in the footsteps of his brother Mark, forging a career in acting and has been involved in movies such as Southie (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), and the critically-acclaimed mini-series Band of Brothers. Donnie had the lead role in the horror film Saw II which was #1 at the box office its opening weekend, October 28, 2005, with $31 million. He returned in a supporting role for the sequel, Saw III, released on October 27, 2006. He has starred in two short-lived television series: Boomtown and Runaway. The newest projects of Donnie include "The Kings of South Beach", "Dead Silence". He's currently working on "The Kill Point".