“Remember This?” is a recurring feature on HuffPost Entertainment, resurrecting pop-cultural artifacts that haven’t enjoyed the spotlight for quite some time. Today, Mike Ryan writes about “Tonight” by New Kids on the Block. If there’s a topic you want us to cover, let us know in the comments.

I never hated the New Kids on the Block as much as I was supposed to. I remember that the Top-40 radio station in Kansas City refused to play New Kids in an effort to appear hip. (As if snubbing the New Kids in favor of the still playing the musical stylings of Timmy T would accomplish such a thing.) The point is, even radio stations found it better for business to hate the New Kids than to embrace them. And even though I had no real opinion on the New Kids one way or another, it behooved me, as a high-school freshman, to openly hate the New Kids because it was cool to hate New Kids on the Block. And I wanted to be cool because, well, I was not cool. (I am still not cool.) I finally formed an actual opinion of the Boston-grown boy band the first time I heard “Tonight.”

I never admitted this at the time, but I did harbor an irrational hatred toward Jonathan Knight because I was fairly convinced that my girlfriend at the time — a die-hard New Kids fan — had stronger feelings for him than she did for me. Looking back, (A) I was right and (B) I didn’t have much to worry about. All of this presented a quandary, though, because I now had to choose between my fruitless quest to be cool and my not-quite-as-fruitless yearning for make-out sessions.

It’s probably safe to assume that I am in the one percentile of “first human beings who have heard New Kids on the Block’s Step by Step album from start to finish.” As Heather (my girlfriend’s name was Heather, by the way) did her best to articulate why the first song on the album — the title track, “Step by Step” — was “good,” my thoughts proceeded roughly like this: I think by song four I can safely attempt to start the make-out session without … hey, you know, this is kind of catchy. This was immediately followed by the realization that no one, ever, could know that I had these thoughts. By song two, “This is kind of catchy” had blossomed into “This song is great!” That song was “Tonight.”

Login with Facebook to see what your friends are reading
Enable Social Reading
i

Mike Ryan
Mike Ryan

Senior Entertainment Writer, The Huffington Post
GET UPDATES FROM Mike Ryan

Like
224
Remember This? New Kids On The Block’s ‘Tonight’
Posted: 09/24/2012 9:27 pm
React
Inspiring
Funny
Hot
Scary
Outrageous
Amazing
Weird
Crazy
Follow
Music , Video , New Kids On The Block , Step By Step , The Right Stuff , Remember This? , Slideexpand , Entertainment News

share this story
39
37
2
Submit this story

nkotb

“Remember This?” is a recurring feature on HuffPost Entertainment, resurrecting pop-cultural artifacts that haven’t enjoyed the spotlight for quite some time. Today, Mike Ryan writes about “Tonight” by New Kids on the Block. If there’s a topic you want us to cover, let us know in the comments.

I never hated the New Kids on the Block as much as I was supposed to. I remember that the Top-40 radio station in Kansas City refused to play New Kids in an effort to appear hip. (As if snubbing the New Kids in favor of the still playing the musical stylings of Timmy T would accomplish such a thing.) The point is, even radio stations found it better for business to hate the New Kids than to embrace them. And even though I had no real opinion on the New Kids one way or another, it behooved me, as a high-school freshman, to openly hate the New Kids because it was cool to hate New Kids on the Block. And I wanted to be cool because, well, I was not cool. (I am still not cool.) I finally formed an actual opinion of the Boston-grown boy band the first time I heard “Tonight.”

I never admitted this at the time, but I did harbor an irrational hatred toward Jonathan Knight because I was fairly convinced that my girlfriend at the time — a die-hard New Kids fan — had stronger feelings for him than she did for me. Looking back, (A) I was right and (B) I didn’t have much to worry about. All of this presented a quandary, though, because I now had to choose between my fruitless quest to be cool and my not-quite-as-fruitless yearning for make-out sessions.

It’s probably safe to assume that I am in the one percentile of “first human beings who have heard New Kids on the Block’s Step by Step album from start to finish.” As Heather (my girlfriend’s name was Heather, by the way) did her best to articulate why the first song on the album — the title track, “Step by Step” — was “good,” my thoughts proceeded roughly like this: I think by song four I can safely attempt to start the make-out session without … hey, you know, this is kind of catchy. This was immediately followed by the realization that no one, ever, could know that I had these thoughts. By song two, “This is kind of catchy” had blossomed into “This song is great!” That song was “Tonight.”

Look, “Tonight,” artistically, is by no means a good song. (And I will add that I don’t know enough about music to make that assertion with 100-percent confidence. Still, I’m pretty confident about this.) But, boy, is it ever catchy. So catchy that I had to own it for myself.

(As an aside: Shortly after the Step by Step album was released, a friend of mine attempted to convince a girl that he was Danny Wood from the New Kids by singing the line from “Step By Step,” “We can have lots of fun.” This is remarkable because not only was he successful in this attempt, but the girl he convinced just wanted to meet Jordan.)

Now, remember, this was 1990. So there was no Internet from which to secretly download your favorite guilty pleasure. (Today, no one ever has to know how many songs I own from Roxette’s “Joyride” album.) So, here’s the little deal that I made with myself: I certainly couldn’t purchase the entire Step By Step album, thereby consigning myself to the shameful category of “people who bought a New Kids on the Block album.” Instead, I reasoned with myself that it was perfectly fine to purchase the single.

Read full article on HuffingtonPost.com.