For teenage girls of two different eras, the New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys were the apex of pop music. Both of them were impossibly successful teen quintets created by astoundingly lucky impresarios who had or would soon strike gold with similar acts (NKOTB Svengali Maurice Starr also bought New Edition onto the pop music scene, while now-disgraced BSB producer Lou Pearlman would also make stars out of NSYNC).
When both groups announced late last year that they were collaborating, cross-generational nostalgia among fans was pretty high - and now, as their upcoming tour looms large, we can confirm that there's going to be a compilation to ride that wave of nostalgia, with the release of NKOTBSB in May from Legacy Recordings.
The premise is simple - ten tracks from the band's collective catalogue plus an undetermined amount of new tracks featuring both bands. Those old tracks, however, will be up to fans to determine; enthusiasts can head over to an official site to pick five tracks from each band. The selections are painfully obvious ones - nearly all the selections for both bands are Top 40 hits - but there is an "Other" option for both bands, so perhaps fans might make some surprise choices.
NKOTBSB streets on May 23; in the meantime, we've enclosed the selectable tracks after the jump, along with their discographical info and U.S. chart positions.
NKOTBSB - New Kids' Selections
- Step by Step (#1)
- Please Don't Go Girl (#10)
- Hangin' Tough (#1)
- Cover Girl (#2)
- I'll Be Loving You (Forever) (#1)
- If You Go Away (#16)
- Didn't I (Blow Your Mind) (#8)
- Tonight (#7)
- You Got It (The Right Stuff) (#3)
- My Favorite Girl (did not chart)
Tracks 1 and 8 from Step by Step (Columbia, 1990)
Tracks 2-5 and 9-10 from Hangin' Tough (Columbia, 1988)
Track 6 from H.I.T.S. (Columbia, 1992)
Track 7 from New Kids on the Block (Columbia, 1986)
NKOTBSB - Backstreet Boys' Selections
- I'll Never Break Your Heart (#35)
- Everybody (Backstreet's Back) (#4)
- All I Have to Give (#5)
- I Want It That Way (#6)
- Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely (#6)
- Larger Than Life (#25)
- Quit Playing Games (with My Heart) (#2)
- Incomplete (#13)
- Straight Through My Heart (#106)
- As Long as You Love Me (did not chart)
Tracks 1 and 7 from Backstreet Boys (Jive, 1996/1997 (U.S.))
Tracks 2-3 and 10 from Backstreet's Back (Jive, 1997)/Backstreet Boys (U.S.) (Jive, 1997)
Tracks 4-6 from Millennium (Jive, 1999)
Track 8 from Never Gone (Jive, 2005)
Track 9 from This is Us (Jive, 2009)
Release Round-Up: Week of March 8
The Right Stuff: New Kids' Breakthrough 'Hangin' Tough' Revisited In 2019 With Remixes, New Tracks
Release Round-Up: Week of November 9
Around and Around: Real Gone's November Vinyl Includes Christmas New Kids On the Block, Hanson and Grateful Dead Box
Call me cynical, but I have a hunch that these online polls are little more than bogus PR stunts.
*making a coughing noise that sort of rhymes with "rhino handmade*
I'll bet you a Coke that no final vote tabulation for this poll will ever wind up on the internet.
Hence, my devious plot to get everyone to vote for NKOTB's "This One's for the Children." 😛
How NKOTB's "Have A Funky, Funky Christmas" didn't make the cut for one of the 10 to choose from their list is beyond me.
On another note and an alternate universe, I would have loved to have heard what the 1971/19722ish-era Jackson 5 would have done with "Please Don't Go Girl." Hearing a 13 y.o. Michael on lead with the J5 harmonizing behind him could have made for an all-time J5 classic.
Not even close to my top 10 songs from NKOTB and BSB. Where are "Games", "Never Let You Go" and BSB's "Shape of My Heart"? I hope they'll put a few new songs on the album. I hardly wait to hear them.
I pick nkotb. Grown men and. Block party and. Click click click and. Game. Amd bsb songs i pick. Mmr dj keep plaing this this song and. Get down and. Maquuade