NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK : Step By Step

Though it wasn't the group's biggest hit here in Australia (that honour went to 'You Got It (The Right Stuff)' two years earlier), 'Step By Step' is THE NKOTB anthem. By the time this single came around in mid 1990, the two Ds (Donny and Danny) and the three Js (Jordan, Johnathan and Joey) had really started to hit their strides - so much so that 'Step By Step' became the band's most successful single worldwide. Though some would today argue that the single sounds dated, it still remains full of the youthful exuberance and playfulness that commanded the attention of the world's pOp buying public all those years ago. Though it now shows it's age with the oversized suit jackets, the running man dance, the big hair and that daggy choreography we emulated so perfectly ('really want you in my world'...), it stands as a reminder of just why this band was so huge and why the fascination with New Kids On The Block, in America and the UK at least, has seen them revive their success in the new millennium. They were the quintessential boyband, the first of a new breed, the band that inspired Nigel Martin Smith to create his own boy band on the other side of the Atlantic. And though the band's new material may not live up to that of the glory days of NKOTB, it's certainly good to have welcomed them back to planet pOp after all these years.