New Kids on the Block 1993-1994
 After the failure of the first album, Starr had the group back in the studio for most of 1987 and 1988 recording their second album. The album's first single was Please Don't Go Girl, a ballad released in spring 1988. Failure seemed destined a second time when the song became another that went unnoticed by the listening public, and Columbia Records made plans to drop the New Kids from the label. At the eleventh hour, however, a radio station in Florida began playing the song. Scoring listener approval, it soon became the most requested song on their play list. When Columbia caught wind of the positive response, they decided to keep the group on its roster and put more effort into promoting the single. National attention soon followed and it eventually climbed to #10 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Chart—becoming the group's first hit.
New Kids on the Block's second album, Hangin' Tough, was released to modest fanfare in September. In the meantime, the group began making national televised appearances on such music programs as American Bandstand, Showtime At The Apollo, and Soul Train. They later landed a spot as an opening act for fellow teen-pop act Tiffany on the US leg of her concert tour. Sales of Hangin' Tough steadily increased as the group's national attention slowly rose. At year's end, the album's second single You Got It (The Right Stuff) was released. The song was given a huge boost when MTV took notice of the group and began playing the video in regular rotation. By early 1989, it cracked the top five. The New Kids hit paydirt with their next single, I'll Be Loving You (Forever), which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart in June. The group had been scheduled to open for Tiffany once again on a second tour, but their sudden popularity caused a reversal, and she wound up opening for them (although the two acts were technically billed as co-headliners.)
More top five singles from Hangin' Tough followed into the summer and fall, including: the title track and Cover Girl. Columbia Records also released, from the groups previously overlooked debut album, Didn't I (Blow Your Mind). The song went top 10 on the strength of the group's popularity and effectively jump-started the sales of that album as well. By the end of 1989, Hangin' Tough had climbed to #1 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart and had gone eight-times platinum. They, subsequently, became the first 'teen' act to garner five top 10 hits from a single album.
Meanwhile, a top ten charting holiday album, Merry, Merry Christmas, was released in the fall—spawning another top 10 hit, This One's for the Children. The proceeds were donated to United Cerebral Palsy, the New Kids' favorite charitable cause. Hangin' Tough would go on to spend 132 weeks on the chart, and in January 1990 it won two American Music Awards for Best Pop/Rock Album, and Best Pop/Rock Group.
What was also amazing was the fact that the group had three singles in the Billboard Top 40 at once, but each single was from a different album: Cover Girl was from the album Hangin' Tough, Didn't I (Blow Your Mind) from New Kids On the Block, and This One's for the Children from Merry, Merry Christmas.
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