Songoftheday 12/12/16 - There are some people livin' in this world, they have no food to eat they have no place to go...

"This One's For The Children" - New Kids On The Block
from the album Merry, Merry Christmas (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10

Today's song of the day comes from the vocal group from Boston, New Kids On The Block, who were so insanely popular by the end of the 1980's that even after sending five songs from their breakthrough album Hangin' Tough into the American pop top ten, they were able to go back to their originally-ignored debut set to score another top ten hit with a cover of "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind)" in the fall of 1989. Capitalizing on this momentum, the boys recorded and released a holiday album, Merry, Merry Christmas, that closed out the decade. Along with a few standards, most of the record were originals written by their producer/svengali, Maurice Starr, including the first single, "This One's For The Children". Promoted as a charity event to benefit the United Cerebral Palsy foundation, kids picked up the record in droves, and pop radio was happy to have an original song to play for the season...

"This One's For The Children" continued NKOTB's streak of top ten hits to a lucky seven in December of 1989. The song also climbed to #27 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart, and even crossed over to #55 on their R&B singles list. Internationally, the song reached the top ten in Canada (#6), Ireland (#7), and the UK (#9).

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Here's the "Kids" performing the song live in 1990, turning it into an epic showstopper with gospel choir and all...

Up tomorrow: British journeyman requires musical sustenance.