The 1990s File Feature
Let's Try It Again
Recording and Chart History: "Let's Try It Again" by New Kids On The Block Artist Background New Kids On The Block, assembled by producer and songwriter Maur…
01 The Story
Recording and Chart History: "Let's Try It Again" by New Kids On The Block
Artist Background
New Kids On The Block, assembled by producer and songwriter Maurice Starr in Boston, Massachusetts, during the mid-1980s, became one of the most commercially successful pop acts in American music history by the close of the decade. The group consisted of Donnie Wahlberg, Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood, and brothers Jonathan and Jordan Knight, all from the Boston metropolitan area. Starr had previously developed New Edition and recognized in this new lineup a similar potential for youth-oriented pop appeal packaged with choreography, accessible harmonies, and relentless touring. Their commercial peak arrived between 1988 and 1990, during which they scored multiple number-one singles, sold out arenas globally, and generated merchandise revenue that by some estimates exceeded their recorded music income. The group became a cultural phenomenon of a scale that had not been seen in American pop since the height of Beatlemania in the 1960s.
Writing, Production, and Album Context
"Let's Try It Again" appeared on No More Games / The Remix Album, released in 1990 by Columbia Records, the group's longtime label home. The album was an unusual hybrid project, combining new original material with remixed versions of earlier hits, designed to maintain commercial momentum during a period when the group was navigating the inevitable challenge of sustaining peak-era popularity in a shifting musical environment. The new tracks on the album, including "Let's Try It Again," were produced within the established New Kids framework, featuring smooth harmonies, radio-friendly tempos, and romantic lyrical content aimed squarely at the core fan demographic that had driven the group's record-setting commercial run through 1988 and 1989. The release strategy reflected Columbia's confidence in the group's audience loyalty despite the beginning of softening mainstream media enthusiasm.
Billboard Hot 100 Performance
The single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 6, 1990, entering at number 88. It climbed methodically through the chart over the following weeks, reaching number 71 in its second week, number 65 in the third, number 59 in the fourth, and achieving its peak position of number 53 on November 3, 1990. The single spent 8 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in total before exiting chart range. While this represented a more modest performance than the dominant period of 1988 to 1989, when tracks like "I'll Be Loving You (Forever)" and "Hangin' Tough" reached number one, it demonstrated that their audience remained engaged and commercially active even as broader cultural attention was beginning to shift toward new trends in popular music.
Commercial Context of 1990
By late 1990, the commercial landscape was shifting in ways that would prove difficult for late-1980s pop acts of the New Kids' type. The group remained one of the top-grossing touring acts of the year, but the media narrative was beginning to pivot, and critical coverage had grown markedly cooler than during the height of the group's popularity just two years earlier. Radio programmers were responding to audience signals that were gradually moving in new directions, toward harder rock sounds on one end and emerging R&B and hip-hop styles on the other. In that context, the chart run for "Let's Try It Again" reflected a group still possessing genuine commercial drawing power while operating in a more competitive and uncertain environment than the one that had produced their earlier dominance. The performance indicated durability if not the exceptional commercial dominance of their peak.
Career Trajectory and Legacy
The group released a studio follow-up, Face the Music, in 1994 before disbanding later that year. They reunited in 2008, launching a successful comeback that demonstrated the enduring loyalty of their original fanbase, who had grown into adult consumers with the disposable income to support tours, albums, and merchandise at scale. New material and touring continued well into the following decade, with the group's legacy firmly established as one of the defining pop phenomena of the late 1980s. The 1990 remix album period now registers as a transitional moment between peak commercial dominance and the more modest, fan-sustained final chapter of their original recording run, and "Let's Try It Again" stands as a representative document of that transitional phase.
02 Song Meaning
Themes, Meaning, and Legacy: "Let's Try It Again" by New Kids On The Block
Romantic Reconciliation as Commercial Strategy
"Let's Try It Again" is structured around the theme of romantic second chances, a subject with broad and reliable appeal that fits naturally within the pop tradition New Kids On The Block inhabited throughout their career. The song addresses the aftermath of romantic difficulty and extends an invitation to recommit, framing vulnerability as strength and persistence as a romantic virtue. This emotional territory was well-suited to the group's core audience of teenage listeners navigating their first experiences of attachment, longing, and the complexity of relationships. The directness of the title phrase and the softness of the accompanying melody made the song immediately accessible without demanding significant interpretive effort from its intended listeners.
Position Within the Group's Catalog
By 1990, New Kids On The Block had already produced an extraordinary run of commercially successful singles, and "Let's Try It Again" represents a chapter in which the group was maintaining rather than expanding their audience. The romantic theme was consistent with what had driven their earlier successes, particularly the ballad-oriented material that showcased the softer vocal textures of Joey McIntyre and Jordan Knight. The song functions as an example of a successful pop act working within a proven formula while the cultural moment around them was beginning to shift, demonstrating both the discipline of the formula and its limitations as a strategy for long-term commercial renewal.
Fan Loyalty and Community
One of the defining characteristics of the New Kids phenomenon was the intensity of fan identification and community that the group inspired. Their audience did not merely consume the music but organized around it, creating fan clubs, correspondence networks, and shared spaces of enthusiasm that prefigured later digital fan communities in important ways. "Let's Try It Again" was received within this context, which meant that chart performance, while still meaningful, was only one measure of the song's impact. The fandom's investment translated into sustained airplay support and purchase activity that kept the single in chart circulation for its full eight-week run on the Billboard Hot 100. The dedicated core audience was, in a real commercial sense, the song's most important infrastructure.
Legacy of the 1990 Transitional Period
Looking back from the present, the No More Games / The Remix Album period represents a fascinating transitional moment in the group's history and in the broader pop landscape. The late-1980s teen pop phenomenon that New Kids had come to embody was beginning to give way to new musical forms, and their ability to sustain chart presence through 1990 speaks to the genuine depth of their commercial infrastructure. The peak of number 53 on the Hot 100 was not the dominance of their peak years but was a meaningful performance by any standard measure of commercial activity in the pop mainstream.
Cultural Significance of the Era
New Kids On The Block occupied a specific and important place in the history of American pop music as one of the first acts to combine manufactured group dynamics, intensive choreography, and a youth-targeted marketing apparatus at true mass scale. The template they embodied influenced the construction of subsequent pop groups through the 1990s and beyond, including the later boy band phenomenon of the late 1990s, making their catalog, including the quieter commercial period represented by this single, an important reference point for understanding how the pop industry developed and refined its most commercially effective models across the decade.
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