NKOTB - Hangin' Tough.
Boz sent me a copy of NKOTB's Hangin' Tough videotape (1989) which he acquired for a mere 25 cents, and that's really more than it's worth.
The video contains four of the group's videos with some behind the scenes road footage included to fill the tape out to a full 30 minutes.
NKOTB were 1.)Joey Joe, pre-teen of the group; 2.) Donnie, the whigger; 3.) Jordan, who wears a Batman shirt exactly like one I used to have; 4.) John, who has no personality whatsoever; and 5.) Apeface (Danny).
The video opens with black and white footage of the group's tour bus and Jordan comments that his favorite part of being on the road is looking out the bus window and "watching the world go by".
Then all of a sudden, we're watching the group's first video, Please Don't Go Girl, featuring Joey Joe on vocals -
Joey Joe.
Jordan (wearing a hat with a giant bill) also plays a big part in this song -
Jordan and his hat.
Jordan eating a hot dog.
The other three stick with background vocals and kind of come off like a chorus of douche bags -
Chorus of Douche Bags - John, Apeface, & Donnie.
The video is divided between performance footage and video of the group following a girl with a huge curl on her head (and her friend) around in an amusement park -
Please Don't Go Curl.
In the video's storyline, Jordan flirts with the girls after all 5 New Kids have been following them around all day. He makes them laugh then eats a hot dog with a shit-eating grin on his face.
Joey Joe is just too young for the girls, although they find him adorable. He sings practically the whole song though. It's probably about a girl who's mom is making her leave the amusement park and Joey Joe wishes she didn't have to leave.
Incidentally, Belle saw Joey Joe during his post-NKOTB solo tour and she says that during the show, he informed the audience, "I'm all grown up now" and then took his shirt off (!) haha
Then there's footage of the New Kids fucking around with a bunch of old casino signs in Vegas. Apeface is filming the rest of them on his personal videocassette recorder.
Then - BAM! - right into the Right Stuff video!
In this video, the New Kids On The Block are having the time of their life riding around in a convertable -
The Right Stuff.
Then they see a couple of girls and everybody except young Joey Joe goes over to flirt with them.
While everyone is posturing and grabbing each other's asses, Joey Joe steals the car and drives off while laughing like a maniac -
Joey Joe at the wheel.
The other New Kids on the Block chase after him. Under-aged driving is no joke to the elder NKOTB members -
Hey! Joe isn't old enough to drive!
The girls think it's hilareous and adorable though -
hahaha...that Joey Joe!
The Right Stuff performance footage includes a lot of heavily choreographed dancing. Gone are the days of the douchebag background singers. NKOTB are now a well-oiled high performance machine.
Then there's more candid tour bus footage of Donnie talking like a thug while playing video games in a gay hat.
For an idea of how annoying it must have been to hang with NKOTB, I've posted a short video excerpt.
Still from the video clip.
Cut to dinner time and Jordan complaining that they always get served fried chicken. "When we get to a new city, we think we're gonna have something different [for dinner]", but it's always fried chicken.
Cut to Donnie talking shit - "We always drink milk with our meals...we never drink soda".
We never drink soda.
This is the same Donnie who, a couple of years later, was arrested for pouring a bottle of vodka on the rug of his hotel room and lighting it on fire.
All of a sudden, we see the soundman's microphone poke up against Jordan. The camera pans along the mike stand to reveal Joey Joe dressed up like a sound guy -
That Joey Joe!
The other New Kids find this absolutely hilareous for some reason and they all convulse in hysterics, Jordan can hardly breathe from laughing so hard -
Ha Ha Ha! Joe's the soundman!
The final video, Hangin' Tough features a more experienced, more mature NKOTB. No more dicking around. This is the era where Joey Joe started wearing the hat with the top cut out of it -
Hangin' Tough.
The song features Donnie in his "Home Boy" t-shirt -
The video shows their rise to greatness and includes tons of footage of little girls freaking out while they perform.
At the end, there's kind of a half-assed "message" in which Jordan states, "New Kids On The Block is about being yourself, it's not about being cool", or something to that effect.
Commentary - I enjoyed watching this one time, but only one time.
Possibly worth 25 cents, but not really.
It was kind of nostalgic to see my old Batman shirt.