New Edition

New Edition was a forerunner of the boy band craze of the '80s and '90s that would include New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync. The group of childhood friends from Roxbury, Massachusetts, first performed together in a local talent show. They sang "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" by the R&B duo McFadden & Whitehead, and added dance steps in the style of The Temptations.

They were discovered by record producer Maurice Starr at the Hollywood Talent Night contest in Boston in 1981, where they earned second place. Starr would go on to form the New Kids on the Block just a few years later after New Edition left his Streetwise label to sign with MCA.

Starr wanted to model the group after the wildly popular Jackson 5, with Ralph Tresvant's cooing high tenor channeling a young Michael Jackson. Their first hit was also their debut single, "Candy Girl."