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New Kids on the Block will revisit their blockbuster Step by Step with a new expanded edition this summer. The 35th anniversary package will be available in a handful of physical and digital formats, with some exclusive variants and bonus tracks throughout. The 1990 release will be available on CD with two tracks from the vault and four mostly promo-only remixes. A pressing of the CD at Target will have an extra track - a recent live version of the cut "Where Do I Go from Here?" - which will apparently also be on the digital version along with several other vintage mixes. The original LP will be pressed anew on black vinyl, with another Target-exclusive variant in the form of a white opaque pressing.
Having burst into the national consciousness with 1988's Hangin' Tough - which sold more than eight million copies and spun off five U.S. Top 10 hits, including chart-toppers "I'll Be Loving You (Forever)" and "Hangin' Tough" - mania for the Boston pop quintet only expanded over the next few years. Their cover of The Delfonics' "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)," from their moderate-selling debut album, was released as a stopgap single and reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, five spots lower than the original; a 1989 holiday album was a strong seller, as was a single from that album, "This One's for the Children," another Top 10. The Boston-bred Kids - brothers Jonathan and Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood - were also incredibly lucrative merchandisers, finding their faces on lunch boxes, dolls, apparel, comics and even a Saturday morning cartoon.
Such was the spirit (and anticipation) when Step by Step was released in the summer of 1990, accompanied by a two-year world tour across five continents. Once again, Hangin' Tough collaborator Maurice Starr (who'd shepherded the similarly successful Boston boy band New Edition) was the album's key collaborator, and the title track shot to No. 1 around the world, followed by "Tonight," a No. 7 hit in America. Backlash was inevitable: despite strong sales, Step by Step sold less than half of what Hangin' Tough did, and the group was briefly rocked by accusations of lip-syncing. Attempts to toughen up their image - not unlike what early New Kid and Donnie's brother Mark did as the leader of rap troupe Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch - and the New Kids split by the mid-'90s. But nostalgia is hard to avoid, and the quintet reunited in 2008 and remain a successful recording and touring act - often on successful package tours with other hitmakers of their generation, or even some of the boy bands that followed in their footsteps in the decade that followed. (The New Kids will hit Las Vegas with a residency that kicks off this summer and will have additional legs in November 2025 and February 2026.)
Step by Step steps back into the picture June 13 and can be pre-ordered below. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Step by Step (35th Anniversary Edition) (Columbia/Legacy, 2025)
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Target (with bonus track)
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Target (White Opaque)
* previously unreleased
** previously unreleased; available physically at Target
+ digital bonus track
- Step by Step
- Tonight
- Baby, I Believe in You
- Call It What You Want
- Let's Try It Again
- Happy Birthday
- Games
- Time is On Our Side
- Where Do I Go from Here?
- Stay with Me Baby
- Funny Feeling
- Never Gonna Fall in Love Again
- Honey Don't You Leave Me *
- I Love My Girl *
- Where Do I Go from Here? (Live 2025) **
- Step by Step (12" Club Remix)
- Tonight (12" Single Remix)
- Games (The Kids Get Hard Remix)
- Call It What You Want (The C+C Pump-It Mix)
- Baby, I Believe in You (The Love Mix) +
- Step by Step (The C+C Vocal Club Mix) +
- Never Gonna Fall in Love Again (The C+C Music Factory Mix) +
- Tonight (7" Single Edit) +
- Games (The Kids Get Hard Mix - Edit) +
- Step by Step (Instrumental) +
Tracks 1-12 released as Columbia C 45129, 1990
Tracks 13-15 previously unreleased. Track 15 exclusive to Target CD
Track 16 and 25 released on Columbia 12" 44-73376, 1990
Track 17 and 23 released on Columbia promo CD single CSK 73461, 1990
Track 18 and 24 released on Columbia promo CD single CSK 73620, 1990
Track 19 released on Columbia promo CD single CSK 3061, 1991
Tracks 20-22 released on No More Games/The Remix Album - Columbia CK 46959, 1990
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I think this would've been better off being announced yesterday, for New Kids on the Block Day.
It in fact was! We had busy days here at Second Disc HQ and didn't get to our reporting until late yesterday.
Well crafted album by writer/producer Maurice Starr and his brother, Michael Jonzun. A lot of great, infectious pop songs and easily the Kids’ strongest album. Interestingly Jordan Knight’s falsetto vocals are reminiscent of Russell Thompkins Jr. of The Stylistics. Starr produced two albums (“Some Things Never Change” in 1984, and “A Special Style” in 1985) for The Stylistics for Arthur Baker’s Streetwise Records. A year after that, came the self-titled New Kids on The Block album featuring a cover of “Didn’t I Blow Your Mind.” In 1988 “Hangin’ Tough” “Merry Merry Christmas” in 1989 and then “Step By Step” in 1990. Sadly, the New Kids parted ways with the great Maurice Starr and Co. did a fairly successful single, “If You Go Away” with Walter Afanasieff, and opted for a more adult urban Sound with “Face The Music” in 1994 but never really recaptured the magic they had with Starr. Very curious to hear the two unreleased tracks that I assume were produced by Starr during the Step By Step sessions. In 2019 it was reported that Maurice Starr was going through some “health challenges” but not much has been reported about him since. I hope he’s doing well.