Happy New Kids on the Block Day!

On April 24, 1989, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts declared this day as the best day of your childhood’s life—a.k.a. “New Kids on the Block Day.” Yes, this is a thing. And yes, we’re going to celebrate it.

While *NSYNC was pretty important and now One Direction is taking over the planet, it’s important that we acknowledge New Kids on the Block as the original boy band that set examples for its successors. And by examples, I mean dance moves. From the “Step by Step” days all the way up until the recent NKOTBSB situation, these guys are still movin’ strong. As a tribute on this honorary day, here are some of the best dance moves provided by NKOTB throughout the past 25 years. Let’s begin:

Here are the New Kids dancing in the “Step by Step” video. This is the original choreography that said “we stand in a line and do synchronized dances”:

Here’s another black-and-white shot (which is confusing, the ’80s weren’t that long ago) from “The Right Stuff,” in which young tot Joey mouths the lyrics:

Ah, “Summertime” from 2008. This is their first single from their sensational comeback:

And here they are in 2009, still dancing in that same line, doing moves like this (from “Single” with Ne-Yo):

And finally, they left the dancing to Donnie in NKOTB’s most recent video “Remix (I Like The)“:

On a final note, I propose a crucial question. When doing my NKOTB research, the natural boy band enthusiast that lives inside me began to wonder: who was/is the heartthrob of the group? McIntyre seems like the obvious choice with those baby blues, floppy hair, boyish charm, etc. But then again, back in the day Jordan seemed like the frontrunner and that usually holds some significance when attracting immature romantic feelings. But now I doubt myself again because Danny Wood currently looks like a model from a body-building catalogue. So I ask…