Song:More Than Words
Album:20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best Of Extreme
The hard rock band Extreme had their biggest success with the 1991 chart topping power ballad More Than Words. To be fair, Extreme was probably more diverse than similar bands of the era. They were from the Boston suburb of Malden, MA. In 1985, lead singer Gary Cherone and drummer Paul Geary were in The Dream. Guitarist Nuno Bettencourt was in the band Sinful and bassist Pat Badger was in In The Pink. They were sharing a dressing room at a show and decided to form Extreme which means Ex-Dream. Cherone and Bettancourt wrote all the songs. After winning a couple of Boston Music Awards, they signed with A & M Records in 1988 and released their debut CD in 1989. More Than Words is from their second CD Pornograffitti and it was an attempt to stray from the hard rock mold and try some funk and other things. More Than Words is an acoustic ballad and it topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991. The follow up single Hole Hearted reached #4. They ran into problems with a video from their third album III Sides To Every Story. The video for Rest In Peace was based on Norman McLaren's classic short film Neighbours. The band was sued for plagiarism by The National Film Board of Canada. The CD did not live up to sales expectations. Paul Geary left in 1984 and was replaced by Mike Mangini. Geary is manager of Godsmack and the current incarnation of Extreme. After the 1995 CD Waiting For The Punchline was unsuccessful, Extreme split up. You can get all their hits on this budget comp. Gary Cherone became lead singer of Van Halen in 1996. Nuno Bettancourt went solo and formed the band Mourning Widows in 2000. Extreme first reformed in 2004 and continue to tour today. Cherone and Bettancourt also work on side projects. Here's the video for More Than Words by Extreme.
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