Remember yesterday when I said “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” was everywhere in the 80s? Here’s more proof. It was so well known, that people made their own parodies. And this one got pretty big in its own right. But then it had an enormous target in its sights.
New Kids On The Block were one of the now many boy bands that have shown up virtually out of nowhere and had gigantic hits, right out of the gate. And then came the backlash: not long after the five bad brothers from the Beantown land started causing large numbers of tween and teen fans to swoon, Rolling Stone readers named the New Kids the worst band of 1989. I remember hearing this parody on a Chicagoland pop radio station that, at other times of the day, played New Kids songs! They were playing to both sides of the conflict!
As a parody song, this one works well enough, with lots of well-timed references to NKOTB songs. I could have done without the pants-dropping suggestion in the last verse myself, but then I’ve never been much of a “morning zoo” radio listener.
A DJ actually brought this song up to New Kid Joey McIntyre in an interview. The singer sounded thrilled – thrilled! – to be talking about it! But the DJ is right about one thing; I also learned all the New Kids’ names from this song. Knowledge that I still have, all these years later. My brain may not be able to keep track of my car keys on a regular basis, but “Danny, Donnie, Joe-Jon-Jordan”? In my mind, at least, those names are still hangin’ tough.
