New Kids On The Block Music Group

For most of the time on Monday at the Shrine Auditorium, the 17th annual American Music Awards ceremony seemed like a teen version of the Grammys. It's not that all the winners were teen-agers (only New Kids on the Block qualified there), but they were mostly favorites of teens. The youthful onslaught was dominated by Milli Vanilli, the European dance-music duo that won three awards and drew loud shrieks from the legions of teen-age fans in the audience each time they walked on stage.

They may be pushing 40, but the New Kids are returning to the block. The boy band New Kids on the Block, which sold 70 million albums in the 1980s and early '90s, has reunited and plans to release an album with new music and go on tour. The reunion comes 20 years after the release of the group's multiplatinum album, "Hanging Tough." The group disbanded in 1994. Donnie Wahlberg has since acted on television and in movies, while Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre and Danny Wood released solo albums.

Gregory McPherson, the University of Massachusetts music teacher whose lip-sync allegations last week caused an uproar in the world of teen sensations New Kids on the Block, says that it's ironic that the vocal group is going on "The Arsenio Hall Show" tonight to defend its honor.

Jordan Knight has a Top 10 song, a fan-favorite video on MTV and a big summer tour on tap, but here's how he knows he's made a comeback: The girls are screaming again. Six years ago, Knight left the New Kids on the Block--that hugely successful pop group turned pop culture punch line--and he had good reason to doubt he would hear the girls cry his name again. In 1995, after all, boy bands were record sales poison. "I always thought, 'It can happen again,' " Knight said.

Jordan Knight has a Top 10 song, a fan-favorite video on MTV and a big summer tour on tap, but here's how he knows he's made a comeback: The girls are screaming again. Six years ago, Knight left the New Kids on the Block--that hugely successful pop group turned pop culture punch line--and he had good reason to doubt he would hear the girls cry his name again. In 1995, after all, boy bands were record sales poison. "I always thought, 'It can happen again,' " Knight said.

Sitting away from the crowd, wearing simple black dresses or jeans, the group of four young women didn't look like they were ready for the New Kids on the Block concert Wednesday night. All around them, thousands of young girls rushed to be first in line, covered from head to toe in New Kids clothes and buttons, screaming whenever they saw a limousine that they thought might be transporting one of their favorite group members inside.

After the newest controversy in the pop world broke last week, when former music director and producer Gregory McPherson claimed that teen sensation New Kids on the Block were lip-syncers, the superstars went on the offensive and decided to take their case straight to the highest court in the land. Well, at least the highest court in their land.

With hundreds of frenzied young fans screaming farewells, the pop band New Kids on the Block left town Saturday with a bang--but without $100,000 cash that was reported stolen along with their manager's briefcase, authorities said. Amid a near mob scene at the Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood, someone allegedly stole the briefcase from the group's business manager, James Rossi, 25, at mid-morning Saturday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

When Greg McPherson, the former music director for New Kids on the Block, recanted his claim that the Boston-based teen sensations were primarily a lip-sync act, most everybody in the music industry thought the hatchet was buried. Not so. New Kids singer Jordan Knight, whose group filed a defamation lawsuit against McPherson in February, says the group intends to push on with its legal case and won't be satisfied until its name is cleared in court.

Teen sensation New Kids on the Block sued their former music director Gregory McPherson for defamation of character on Monday in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston. The defamation suit, which seeks unspecified damages, comes less than a week after the pop quintet interrupted its Australian tour to perform live on "The Arsenio Hall Show" in Los Angeles to counter charges by McPherson that the group is primarily a lip-sync act.

The New Kids on the Block sang on "The Arsenio Hall Show" Wednesday. Sang is the operative word. Those were their voices going out to millions of viewers--not someone else's, or even prerecorded tracks of their own. Harmonies were off and notes were missed on several occasions, leaving little doubt that it really was the New Kids performing their two musical numbers on the show, taped Wednesday afternoon at Paramount Studios in Hollywood.

After the newest controversy in the pop world broke last week, when former music director and producer Gregory McPherson claimed that teen sensation New Kids on the Block were lip-syncers, the superstars went on the offensive and decided to take their case straight to the highest court in the land. Well, at least the highest court in their land.

Gregory McPherson, the University of Massachusetts music teacher whose lip-sync allegations last week caused an uproar in the world of teen sensations New Kids on the Block, says that it's ironic that the vocal group is going on "The Arsenio Hall Show" tonight to defend its honor.

Pop teen heroes the New Kids on the Block will interrupt their Australian tour to perform live Wednesday on "The Arsenio Hall Show" in Los Angeles to counter charges made this week by their former musical director that the group lip-syncs in concert and contributed less than 30% of the singing on their records. The group was sued Jan.

New Kids Sue for Unauthorized Use of Names: The pop group New Kids on the Block sued the publishers of USA Today and three other firms Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for a total of $50 million, alleging trademark infringement and false advertising through the unauthorized use of the group's name. USA Today and Star magazine both ran reader polls using photos of the band, the suits said. A promotional company, Media Promotions Inc. of Clearwater, Fla.

They may be pushing 40, but the New Kids are returning to the block. The boy band New Kids on the Block, which sold 70 million albums in the 1980s and early '90s, has reunited and plans to release an album with new music and go on tour. The reunion comes 20 years after the release of the group's multiplatinum album, "Hanging Tough." The group disbanded in 1994. Donnie Wahlberg has since acted on television and in movies, while Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre and Danny Wood released solo albums.

With hundreds of frenzied young fans screaming farewells, the pop band New Kids on the Block left town Saturday with a bang--but without $100,000 cash that was reported stolen along with their manager's briefcase, authorities said. Amid a near mob scene at the Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood, someone allegedly stole the briefcase from the group's business manager, James Rossi, 25, at mid-morning Saturday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Sitting away from the crowd, wearing simple black dresses or jeans, the group of four young women didn't look like they were ready for the New Kids on the Block concert Wednesday night. All around them, thousands of young girls rushed to be first in line, covered from head to toe in New Kids clothes and buttons, screaming whenever they saw a limousine that they thought might be transporting one of their favorite group members inside.