Profile: New Kids on the Block

It was a cold rainy night in Dorchester, Massachusetts when Marlene and Allan Knight gave birth to a baby boy, Jonathan Rashleigh Knight. It was just the beginning of what would become one of the greatest musical groups of all time. Jonathan and his younger brother Jordan grew up in the Boston area. One day they got a call from one of their high school friends Donnie Wahlberg. Wahlberg had just been signed by Maurice Starr to be in a boy band and Donnie asked the Knights to join him, his brother Mark and another friend of his Danny Wood. 

Details are sketchy but some people say the Knights were leery at first but when Donnie explained that Starr was the same guy who managed New Edition they were so in. Unfortunately Donnie’s younger brother Mark ended up quitting and instead went for his own singles career as Marky Mark. He had an incredible career with hits such as “Good Vibrations” and…”Good Vibrations Remix.” They needed a replacement for Marky Mark so they hired a 12-year-old by the name of Joey McIntyre. Originally the band would be called Nynuk but when Columbia Records demanded they change their name they became New Kids on the Block, and the rest is history.

In 1986 Columbia Records released the New Kids on the Block’s first album called New Kids on the Block. The album was written by Maurice Starr and it was truly a masterpiece. The first single “Be My Girl” received airplay in the group’s hometown of Boston but didn’t get played nationwide. The rest of the country was truly missing out. “Stop It Girl” was their second single and it didn’t do very well, I think it was because the NKOTB (New Kids on the Block) were sending mixed messages. Did they want the girl to be theirs? Or did they want the girl to stop it? Make up your mind. Shockingly the New Kids’ first album was not a success. Starr persuaded Columbia Records to do a second album. And when I say persuaded I mean he asked and Columbia Records said “of course! NKOTB rocks! How could we not do a second album?”