Backstreet Boy Nick Carter's earliest recordings will be released as Before the Boys: 1989-1993 on March 26th. The fourteen-track album features tracks Carter cut between the tender ages of nine and thirteen, trumping his little brother Aaron, who released Aaron Carter at age ten.

Carter's earliest recordings were waxed in the Orlando, Florida studio of producer Mark Dye, who also served as Carter's vocal coach, after Carter's relocation from New York to the Sunshine State. Three years after the latest of the recordings, Carter would release his first album with the Backstreet Boys, a self-titled effort that placed Carter and the BSBs on the road to superstardom.

The songs range from "The Star Spangled Banner" to covers of Billy Joel ("Uptown Girl") as well as an array of questionable choices, including the inappropriate "Just a Gigolo," the premature "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" and the somewhat prophetic "Jailhouse Rock."

Before the Boys: 1989-1993 track listing:

Love Is a Wonderful Thing
More Today Than Yesterday
Rhythm of My Heart
Runaround Sue
Lights
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Jailhouse Rock
God Bless the U.S.A.
Uptown Girl
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody
Hard to Get
Summer!
The Star Spangled Banner

ANDREW DANSBY
(February 14, 2002)