Teenage girls mob them wherever they go. At concerts, thier fans collapse in the aisles. Admirers swarm hotels, radio stations, and record stores just to get a glimpse of their heroes.
No, they are not the Beatles, or New Kids On The Block. They're the Backstreet Boys, the R&B pop band with a style all their own.
It all began in 1993 in Orlando, Florida, the town best known for Disney World. Teen actors A.J. McLean, Howie Dorough, and Nick Carter kept seeing each other at auditions for commercials and TV shows.
"It was kinda funny meeting the same people," Howie remembers. "Especially A.J., who I kept bumping into a lot. He and I would always be there at differnt agents' offices. I got to know him through a vocal coah we both used. He introduced the two of us."
There can be a lot of downtime at auditions, and it can get quite boring. So while they waited to be called, the three started hanging out together and quickly became friends. They discoverd that they had the same musical tastes, and liked bands such as Boyz II men and Color Me Badd. One day, the trio started harmonizing to an old Temptations song. Their voices fit together so well that they decided to form an a cappella group.
Meanwhile in Lexington, Kentucky, Kevin Richardson was dying to get into show business. He heard that there were a lot of job opportunities in Orlando since a few movies and televsion studios had moved down there. He moved to Florida and took a job at Disney World as a tour guide. In his free time, he sang and wrote music. A pal of Kevin's heard him singing one day and admired his deep voice. The friends asked if he would be interested in joining a group. He introduced Kevin to Nick, A.J., and Howie. Kevin was just what the guys were looking for. But they felt something was still missing. They needed one more member to complete their sound. Despite aufitioning singers from all over Florida, they just couldn't find someone who clicked. That's when Kevin decided to call his cousin Brian Littrell, back in Lexington. Brian was sitting in calss when his name was called out over the P.A. system. He was convinced it was bad news little did he know it was the biggest break of his life!
Brian jumped at the chance to audition for the group and came to Orlando right away. The rest of the group loves his gospel-influenced vocal style. Brian was in. The only thing left to do was pick a name. They took their name from the landmark Backstreet Market, a local teenage hangout in downtown Orlando, and became the Backstreet Boys.
Thank-you K.S. Rodriguez (author of The Backstreet Boys) for the this information.
