Unless you live under a rock, by now you’ve heard the news: New Kids On The Block officially announced their reunion. Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood will release an album of all-original material this summer, followed by a fall tour.

Because I could never get behind the New Kids’ hits, I didn’t understand what this particular boy-band infatuation was all about. But my twin-spin friends Michelle and Tracy were big fans. They proudly wore NKOTB T-shirts, carried the notebooks, and waited in line for tour tickets to prove their bubblegum love (even enduring Dino as the Kids’ opening act). While I did secretly agree that Jordan was easy on the eyes, the only NKOTB song I ever really liked was “Tonight,” their autobiographical Beatleseque pastiche, which reached #7 in 1990:

In the group’s video interview for People magazine, McIntyre says “Tonight” might be the perfect opener for their tour, precisely because of its reflective lyrics. And though fans can expect to hear a mix of old and new songs when they come to a city near you, I doubt anyone’s begging for an encore of “Dirty Dawg,” a 1994 single angling for street cred (“Hangin’ Tough” wasn’t so tough, remember). The “Dirty Dawg” video verges on self-parody, though I don’t think the band was in on the joke:

On May 16, New Kids On The Block will take the Today show stage at Rockefeller Center, performing together for the first time in almost 14 years. So we’ll see then if the boys from Boston have still got the right stuff, baby. Because if the new NKOTB doesn’t measure up to the memories of now-grown women like Michelle and Tracy, there’s gonna be double trouble, indeed.