''Step by Step'' is the third studio album by American

boy band A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Ma ...

New Kids on the Block New Kids on the Block (also initialized as NKOTB) is an American boy band from Dorchester, Massachusetts. The band consists of brothers Jonathan and Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood. New Kids on the Block enjoy ...

, released in June 1990 via

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the A ...

Background and release

At the time of release the group was very popular and was being heavily merchandised, with everything from pillowcases, marbles, dolls, to a Saturday morning cartoon with their name and likeness. Before the album release Columbia Records received advance orders of more than two million copies of the album, and the demand put the company's pressing plants into overtime production. ''Step by Step'' went to number one on both the ''Billboard'' 200 and the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

, with the lead-off title track single topping the charts simultaneously and selling nearly three million copies, making it their highest selling single. Simultaneously with the release of the album, CBS Music Video put out the group's third home video, also called ''Step by Step'', which had more than 500,000 advance orders, becoming the largest initial shipment of home videos of the company. In Brazil, the VHS sold over 10,000 copies, becoming a success in the country. Another top ten single, "Tonight", followed, as the group embarked on their most ambitious world tour to date. After having earned success with '' Hangin' Tough'', the group took a more active role creatively on this album, co-writing and producing several of its tracks. They also started playing instruments on most of their songs. By the end of 1990, despite the album having gone multi-platinum, the third and last single, "

Let's Try It Again "Let's Try It Again" is a song performed by New Kids on the Block. Written and produced by Maurice Starr, it was the fourth and final single from the group's third album, '' Step by Step'', released in the fall of 1990. It contains shared lead voc ...

," was less successful and failed to crack the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 top fifty, and the album overall received lower certifications than ''Hangin' Tough'' in the United States.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

{{Authority control 1990 albums New Kids on the Block albums Albums produced by Maurice Starr