That Was Then, This Is Now

Jordan Knight has a Top 10 song, a fan-favorite video on MTV and a big summer tour on tap, but here’s how he knows he’s made a comeback: The girls are screaming again.

Six years ago, Knight left the New Kids on the Block--that hugely successful pop group turned pop culture punch line--and he had good reason to doubt he would hear the girls cry his name again. In 1995, after all, boy bands were record sales poison.

“I always thought, ‘It can happen again,’ ” Knight said. “But I wasn’t sure how I could make it come true.”

Mr. Knight, welcome to 1999, the era of the Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync and 98 Degrees.

Youth pop is back in force and a strange “old school” credibility has been lent to veterans of past boy bands: In addition to Knight, there’s Ricky Martin (Menudo), Joey McIntire (another New Kid) and Robbie Williams (Take That).

For Knight, who spent four years searching for a sound for his debut solo effort, the timing couldn’t be better for a return.

His self-titled album landed in stores this week and the first single, “Give It to You,” has a funky stutter beat and a “Grease”-inspired video that is drawing thousands of fans--mostly young, mostly female--to his public appearances.

“The music landscape changing to more pop music definitely is helping me out like crazy,” Knight said, although, he adds, the clutter on that landscape is an odd sight. “When it was the New Kids, there was only one group; we didn’t have to share with anybody. It was just us, that was it.”

For a time, it seemed there was no room for anyone except the New Kids, who in 1991 topped a Forbes list of the year’s richest entertainers by raking in $115 million. During their three-year run, the New Kids sold 50 million albums worldwide, but were also savaged by critics and parents as no-talent pretty boys.

The New Kids story has been cited as a template by the music moguls and managers behind the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync, but it’s also a lesson in how pop fads can quickly wilt.

“A lot of people wanted to move to a different place as far as music and image,” Knight said, citing the advent of hip-hop and grunge. “There’s not a lot you can do when that happens.”

It can also make a comeback a little scary.

The Boston native’s return to the pop music spotlight began in earnest in Miami in February when he was invited to sing “Give It to Me” to a beery crowd at a radio station-sponsored concert. The station was the only one in the country playing the soon-to-be hit, and Knight was so ill-prepared for a live gig that his set consisted of the same song sung twice.

“He was really nervous, really quiet on the way to the show,” recalls Miguel Melendez, Knight’s manager. “He was excited, but you don’t know how the audience is going to respond. . . . People thrive when icons fail or flop. They love it when you’re down.”

And what happened?

“They loved him,” Melendez said. “It was a great moment watching him from the side of the stage.”

With the exception of some anonymous crooning at piano bars, it was the 29-year-old Knight’s first stage work since leaving the New Kids. It also followed four years of often frustrating studio work as Knight worked with a variety of producers to pinpoint his sound. Knight left the New Kids a wealthy man, so his primary motive was to hone his art, but the results were slow in coming.

The languishing project prompted executives at Interscope Records--which signed Knight to a solo deal in 1996--to privately wonder whether he would be best served by leaving the label, concedes Jimmy Iovine, the label’s co-founder.

Instead, Knight “found his voice,” as Iovine puts it, after teaming with collaborator Robin Thicke and celebrated songwriter-producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the duo that helped Janet Jackson establish herself as a pop powerhouse.

“This album isn’t a boy band album; it’s more in the line of Janet Jackson or George Michael than it is a Backstreet Boys album,” Iovine said. “Some people might lump it in with this [boy band] wave, but the real story is the great reviews this album is getting.”

Knight will also get to reach out to fans on the upcoming Boys of Summer tour with ‘N Sync and Five, some of the young guns on the boy band scene. Will Knight, who will have a group of dancers in tow, treat the fans to a nostalgic jolt by breaking out some New Kids hits, such as “You Got It (The Right Stuff)” or “Step by Step”?

“I don’t know. . . . I’ve thought about it, but I haven’t been too motivated,” he said. “But, you know, it could be fun.”