Hangin' Tough

Yes, some of the musical arrangements and lyrics may strike you as simplistic and cliched. Consider this refrain from "I'll Be Loving You (Forever)": "I'll be loving you forever / Just as long as you want me to be. / I'll be loving you forever /All this love's for you and me." But the New Kids bring an appealing combination of innocent charm and youthful energy to their performances. If you enjoy the boy pop acts of later years (Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, 98 Degrees, etc.), check out "Hangin' Tough."

Unlike the earlier and Step by Step, this attempts to place the kids within the rough and rugged world of the inner city. No shiny metal vests and blond highlights here because these kids are seen on a graffitti strewn subway (among other dingy places) in the video for "Please Don't Go Girl" This is definely not the type of music that would later be associated with boy groups..

Donnie does the vocals for the title track which is just fine with me because I never fully understood why such large numbers of my classmates were going gaga over Joe and or Jordan. He also does the inherently lighter cover girl, and I still can't believe he did not sing more songs for the group because he was great in his own right Through no faults of their own, Joe and Jordan simply had too high vocal ranges for my tastes, and should have not been the primary singers for this band.

Unlike so many of today's groups, the lyrics for a preteen audience were far more innocent and comforting. Although I am hardly a proponent of the music censorship movement, I would like to see less in your face sexuality aimed at an elementary and junior high audience. Sure, some people might still cringe at this band, but we have the admit they had a lot more originality than today's wannabe pimps (who unlike the band members) did not experience a hardnock life before stardom.