Meanwhile in Lexington, Kevin, bored of the band he was playing with, decided to strike out and go to Orlando. He managed to land a job as a guide at Disneyworld within a week of arriving and then set about trying to become a professional singer and lyricist. Though one of his mates at work he heard about'these three guys who sing together all the time', and organised a meeting. He was totally wowed by Nick, Howie and Aj's acapella performance and their great dance, moves. Why not team up they all thought? The die was cast and all they needed now was one in the morning, Kevin phoned his cousin Brian in Lexington. had him called out of class, and told him about the three singers he had met the night before. Next day, Brian hopped on a plane heading for Florida, moved in with Kevin and helped the Boys come up with the band's name. they called themselves after Orlando's famous flea market Backstreet Market.

Shortly afterwards, a mutual friend, Louis J Pearlman, a record producer himself, introduced the Backstreet Boys to managers Donna and Johnny Wright. The boys sensed immediately that they had found the right people to duide their career. the Wrights, recognising that the boys didn't need lots of rehearsal time, got them out on tour almost straight away and invited talent scoults from various companies to see the Backstreet Boys in action. when certain record companies were slow to respond, Donna called them by mobile phone during a peformance and left a soundbite of the live event on their answering machines. That's exactly how A&R veteran, Dave McPherson, got to hear the band and he quickly became a Backstreet Boys fan.

In early 1994, after Jive REcord's Jeff Fenster attended a Backstreet Boys show and was captivated by what he heard, the Boys were signed within days. With the record deal complete all that was left was to capture the compelling harmonies in the recording studio.

Lexington, Kentucky-City Number 1

Lexington, is home to cousins Kevin Richardson, aged 23 and Brian Littrell, aged 21. Both the boys come from musical families and started singing at an early age in church choirs and at local evenys. At family celebrations they were never short of a tune and used to sing tradition Barder Shop Quart at tunes and covers of bands songs that were really into: Boyz II Men, Jodeci and Bobby Brown. The boys' musical talent was indisputable even as youngsters and their top rate duets were the talk of town.

Orlando, Florida-City Number 2

Orlando is home to AJ. Mclean, aged 21, Howie Dorough, age 24 and Nick Carter, age 19 and it is here that they first met each other in the round of singing auditions for various shows. All three them were solo artists appearing on tV, in musicals, advertisements and films. To tide them over between commissions the three boys would get together and sing old Temptations hits or songs that they heard that they heard on the radio. The trio harmonised perfectly and realising this, they teamed up as an acapella group.

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