Columbia 4098
Producer: Maurice Starr
Track listing: You Got It (The Right Stuff) / Please Don’t Go Girl / I’ll Be Loving You (Forever) / Cover Girl / I Need You / Hangin’ Tough / I Remember When / What’cha Gonna Do (About It) / My Favorite Girl / Hold On
September 9, 1989
2 weeks
Maurice Starr had it all and then lost it. In 1981, Starr put together a group of five black youths called New Edition. But after their first album, the group was lured away by MCA Records.
Even before the split, Starr had other ambitions. He wanted to start a white version of New Edition that would appeal to an even broader audience. Starr’s first attempt, in which he left his phone number with a teenager at a flower shop, led to a phone call from the F.B.I., who were wondering why a grown man was leaving his number with children.
After that mishap, Starr’s first recruit was Mark Wahlberg, who later scored hits as Marky Mark. Although Mark left the group because he was more interested in rapping than singing, his older brother Donnie stayed on and suggested other possible members. Danny Wood and brothers Jordan and Jon Knight, who Wahlberg knew from elementary school, were enlisted, and Joe McIntyre rounded out the quintet.
They were originally called Nynuk, but Columbia Records, which was courting the group, suggested the name be replaced by one of the group’s song titles. The rechristened New Kids were signed to Columbia Records black music division in January 1986. Later that year, the group recorded its self-titled debut album, but it only sold 5,000 copies upon its release in 1987, as the single “Be My Girl” failed to crack the Hot 100 and stalled at number 90 on the Hot Black Singles chart. “We had high hopes and big dreams when we were doing the first album,” says Jordan Knight. “We thought it was going to be real big, but it didn’t do anything.”
“But we didn’t give up,” Jordan adds. “We had the same hopes and dreams for Hangin’ Tough,” much of which was recorded at Starr’s home. “It didn’t have regular studio walls,” says Wahlberg. “So if a truck drove by, we had to stop recording.” In spite of such nuisances, Wahlberg says that Hangin’ Tough was the group’s best collaboration with Starr. “It was just a total vibe session with Danny, myself, Jordan, and Maurice,” Wahlberg says. “We would sit down with Maurice for days and talk about what kind of music we wanted to do and we would go through Maurice’s whole song library and find the songs we liked.”
Among the songs the Kids chose was “Please Don’t Go Girl,” a song originally recorded by another Starr discovery, Irving & the Twins. The New Kids’ version caught the ear of WRBQ Tampa program director Randy Kabrich. Eventually, it became a hit, climbing to number 10. The follow-up, “You Got It (The Right Stuff),” hit number three. Then, “I’ll Be Loving You (Forever),” a song Starr penned with Smokey Robinson in mind, topped the Hot 100.
Buoyed by the hits, Hangin’ Tough was on a slow climb to the top, but it would need another hit for the final push. “Hangin’ Tough” entered the Hot 100 on July 15, 1989. Eight weeks later, it hit the pole position as the album also hit Number One in its 55th week on the Top Pop Albums chart, making the New Kids the first teen group to have a simultaneous Number One album and single. “That was probably the truest reward that we ever,” says Wahlberg. “There’s been nothing like it ever since.”
THE TOP FIVE
Week of September 9, 1989
1. Hangin’ Tough, New Kids on the Block
2. Repeat Offender, Richard Marx
3. Forever Your Girl, Paula Abdul
4. Girl You Know it’s True, Milli Vanilli
5. Batman, Prince/Soundtrack