Maurice Starr
When people discuss New England’s rich musical history and somebody asks, “Who’s responsible for writing and producing recordings in excess of 50 million units sold around the world?”, the name Maurice Starr may not jump out of your mouth immediately – but it should.
Starr is the founder and creative force behind two of the most successful acts to ever come out of New England, New Edition and New Kids on the Block. By the time he’d parted ways with both bands, they’d sold tens of millions of recordings worldwide. At the height of their popularity, NKOTB were at least as popular as any pop act has ever been. And, like he did on New Edition’s early albums, Starr wrote and produced every single one of the that band’s hits from their first few albums.
Singing career, New Edition
Born Larry Curtis Johnson on July 14, 1953 in Deland, Florida, Starr moved to Boston in the early 1970s. He’d already established a recording career of his own with a monster hit on RCA Records that was played across the US – “’Bout Time I Funked You Baby” – and the song was a staple on Boston’s WILD-AM, then the city’s go-to spot on the dial for soul, R&B and funk. His brothers were equally talented and together they formed The Johnson Brothers and The Jonzun Crew; they found success with several R&B hits including “Pac Man.” By 1980, the year Larry Curtis Johnson legally changed his name to Maurice Starr, he’d recorded two R&B albums as a solo artist, Flaming Starr and Spacey Lady.
Starr was multi-talented and he always knew that if his own singing career didn’t take off, then he could always produce other acts. He started hosting the Hollywood Talent Nights shows throughout Boston’s neighborhoods and, as fortune would have it, he would soon meet five young men from Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood and New Edition was born. In 1982, their “Candy Girl” hit #1 hit in the Billboard Hot 100 and took the country by storm, as did their debut album, Candy Girl, which sold over one million copies. Starr produced and wrote every song on the disc.
New Kids on the Block
After the tremendously successful debut album, New Edition and Starr parted ways, but Starr took his production gifts to an even higher level, this time with five white kids. Once again, he returned to the neighborhoods of Boston and in 1984 he put together five young men from Dorchester and South Boston to form New Kids on the Block. The training, recording and promotion formulas was the same as with New Edition; the only difference was that the group was white, not Black. Starr said he knew what he was doing, based on experience. “I honestly believe that if they’d been white, [New Edition] would have been 20 times as big,” he said.
The formula paid off as NKOTB became one of the most popular pop acts of all time. Their self-titled-debut, released in 1986, went triple platinum and featured the single, “Be My Girl,” but it was their second disc that sealed Starr and the group’s place in music history. Titled Hangin’ Tough, the album dropped in August 1988 and sold a mind-boggling 13 million copies worldwide. NKOTB summoned a Beatle-esque response from fans and their concerts sold out around the world while merchandising took them into over $1 billion in total revenue between 1988 to 1990.
As with New Edition’s first album, Starr produced and wrote every song on NKOTB’s first two albums, recorded in Boston and Westwood, Massachusetts, and at Normandy Sound in Warren, Rhode Island. Hangin’ Tough won two American Music Awards, received a Grammy nomination and included five major hits.
Other projects, Influence
At age 36, Maurice Starr was one of the biggest names in the recording business. Eventually, he parted ways with New Kids on the Block as the group members moved on to other projects. But he went on to work with a who’s who of other artists, writing songs and appearing on albums for LL Cool J, Peter Wolf, Con Funk Shun, The Stylistics, Shirley Caesar, Tiffany, Anita Baker, Jean Carne, Ma$e and Puff Daddy, among others.
His success with New Edition and NKOTB was, of course, the foundation that spawned Backstreet Boys, NSYNC and others, and essentially restarted the “boy band” and “girl band” phenomenon that continues to thrive in the recording industry today. Both acts continued their success long after Starr had stopped being their manager/producer. Despite only working on one album with Starr, New Edition went on to become one of the most successful R&B/soul bands in music history. Members Bobby Brown, Ralph Tresvant and spin-off group Bell Biv DeVoe achieved enormous success as well.
Recent activity, Legacy
Starr, who’s had some health challenges in recent years, currently lives in Florida and in late 2020 all the members of New Kids on the Block visited him there. “It would be hard to fully explain the impact this man has had on my life on so many lives beyond the success he has helped me find personally,” said former NKOTB member Donnie Wahlberg, now a Hollywood movie star.
In terms of his legacy, consider this simple fact: No New England-based artist in history has written and produced as many hit songs and albums as Maurice Starr did with New Kids on the Block and New Edition in such a short period of time – under 10 years.
(by Edwin Sumpter)
