Boy Bands

Although the term "boy band" was not common currency until the '90s, there's no doubt that the roots of the phenomenon run deep in the soil of pop's fecund past — that's why it makes perfect sense for Human Nature to cover the Jackson 5's perennially funky Motown classic "ABC." It's also why we've included "Girls on film" by those original English pretty boys Duran Duran. Kick off with Take That and let those abs ripple on through Next Steps.

The roads to boy band legend are many and varied, but a training in drama is always a bonus. Tom Fletcher from McFly ("Obviously") attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School and played the lead in the musical Oliver at the London Palladium; and Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it walk-on part in the movie Edward Scissorhands. Now boogie in perfectly choreographed harmony over to Deep Cuts.

Maurice Starr is generally acknowledged as the father of the boy band, after he put together New Kids on the Block in Boston, 1984, with Donnie Wahlberg and pals, who gave us "Step by Step." And so the template was set. Wet Wet Wet may stretch the definition of the term boy to unreasonable limits, but the track "Sweet Surrender" (sung by a 24-year-old Marti Pellow) is too smooth not to include here.

If the 64-gazillion dollar question is "What makes a great boy band?" then we've got the answer here, in these hot, spunky, hysteria-inducing Essentials drawn from the full gamut of pop-rockin' boy brilliance. Dimples are evidently a crucial factor (Take That's Robbie Williams, Boyzone's Stephen Gately), as are floppy fringes (Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran). But, for us, the most important element of all, aside from the swoonful harmonies, is the fanciable factor — and this lot all have it in spades.