Happy birthday, New Edition! And look what we’ve got for you to get you to try to relive those glory days – a new tour.
New Edition’s Jamie Foxx started off with the pure nostalgia of the group’s numbers (re: the love song ‘Cool It Now’) and then wrapped up with a confident rendition of New Kids on the Block’s iconic ‘You Got It (The Right Stuff)’ – not to mention of DeBarge’s ‘Rhythm is Gonna Get You’.
Needless to say, we were loving it, and it’s clear that New Edition (and the other groups they included in the show) have had the most enduring impact on American pop culture.
It’s actually sad – sad for their demise and sad for the music scene we’ve been missing.
New Edition lost one of its members in February 2012, when Ronnie DeVoe – who was at the heart of the group – died from renal failure at age 58.
From then on, things became a little dicier when Bobby Brown – that boyish, already brilliant frontman – decided to try his hand as a solo artist, so New Edition performed very occasional reunions, and now there’s a new one at New York’s Manhattan Center Theater as part of Broadway Live on CBS.
Maybe they’re back to pulling so many big hits together again as a way of kicking them out of retirement.
We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled to see if they take on – let’s be honest – we’re banking on an ABBA smash or two.