Songoftheday 3/11/16 - Girl you're my best friend girl you're my love within, I just want you to know that I will always love you...

"Please Don't Go Girl" - New Kids On The Block
from the album Hangin' Tough (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's song of the day comes from the "boy-band" style vocal group New Kids On The Block, who were assembled by manager/producer Maurice Starr, who was the svengali behind the retro-styled R&B act New Edition. When they severed ties with Starr, he decided to replicate the template for the group with a bunch of white kids from the same city to go for the somewhat still more segregated pop radio market. Originally made up of brothers Donnie and Mark Wahlberg and Jordan and Jon Knight along with friend Danny Wood, Mark exited early to be replaced with "ringer" Joey McIntyre. They released their self-titled debut in 1986, but besides the single "Be My Girl", which popped on to the R&B chart in Billboard at #90, it scarcely made an impression. After Starr pulled enough strings to be allowed a second album, the group recorded what would be the changing point in how pop music would be marketed in the next few decades, bringing back the vocal harmonies and soul grooves of the early 70s groups like the Jackson 5, the Stylistics, and the Delfonics (who they covered on their first album). With the aim strictly for pre-teen girls with nary a nod to any guys, MTV was given the start of what would really put Total Request Live on the map, with the video for their first single "Please Don't Go Girl" truly introducing the middle-school crowd to the five boys crooning their hearts out. The single, seemingly pulled from a K-Tel record from 1974 but written and produced by Starr, spotlighted McIntyre's high tenor as well as Jordan Knight's falsetto (and props to whoever put Jordan in that Keith Haring sweatshirt)...

"Please Don't Go Girl" became New Kids On The Block's first top-10 pop hit in the U.S. in October of 1988. The record also crossed over to #55 on Billboard's R&B chart.

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An alternate video was made that took away the plot of the original just to focus on harmonic beefcake...

Here's the guys performing to some screaming girls in 1991...

On their immensely popular tour with the Backstreet Boys, the guys made this song a highlight...

...and lastly, the reunited NKOTB in 2013 giving a jazzy swing to the song...

Up tomorrow: A British sophisti-pop group are conscientious objectors.