First released in August 1990, Extreme’s second album Extreme II: Pornograffiti went Top 20 on both sides of the Atlantic and was later certified double platinum in the U.S. Yet, while it remains the band’s best-selling title, its success was bittersweet, as its chart return was bolstered by an atypically gentle acoustic song its creators felt wasn’t representative of Extreme’s music.
“People who like “More Than Words” are not Extreme fans, they just like that song,” guitarist Nuno Bettencourt told Classic Rock in a 2014 interview. “That’s cool, that’s nice, but the actual truth fans know is we’re more than that song.”
In retrospect, the way “More Than Words” helped Extreme break into the charts surprised both the band and its label, A&M. Though not a major hit, their self-titled 1989 had still sold over a quarter of a million copies and A&M believed that the Boston rockers’ trademark funk-flavored hard rock would find a wider audience with Extreme II: Pornograffiti.
Initially, that proved a fair assumption, as Pornograffiti again showcased Extreme’s predilection for sleazy, Guns N’ Roses-style rock anthems (“Decadence Dance,” “Money (In God We Trust),”) and also funk-infused metal on songs such as “When I’m President” and the swaggering, Chili Peppers-esque “Get The Funk Out.” Indeed, these songs did help to raise the band’s profile. “Decadence Dance” received heavy rotation on MTV and “Get The Funk Out” became a Top 20 hit in the U.K. where Nuno Bettencourt’s skills drew praise from venerable Queen guitar legend Brian May.
““Get The Funk Out” is a landmark in rock history,” May enthused in a 2017 YouTube interview. “On pure technical ability alone, that is colossal. I could never do that. No way in a month of Sundays could I learn that [guitar] solo. It’s Nuno’s own thing and it’s stupendous.”
However, while Extreme’s signature heavy rock was sprayed liberally across Pornograffiti, a song of a very different stripe ultimately sold the album to the masses. Describing “More Than Words” as a “strangely melodic, but slightly twisted song the universe had delivered me” in a 2017 Facebook post, Bettencourt also recalled that his acoustic classic took just “a matter of minutes” before it was completed with help from a lyric from vocalist Gary Cherone.
Regardless of its rapid creation, this lilting, heartfelt ballad had something really special and – with help from an MTV-friendly promo video – “More Than Words” made its way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1991. With Pornograffiti’s other acoustic ballad “Hole Hearted” following it into the Top 5 of the U.S. singles chart, the album got its second wind and rose back up the Billboard 200, where it peaked at No. 10. Its success ushered in the mainstream success Extreme craved and the band even came close to repeating it with 1993’s gold-selling Extreme III: Sides To Every Story.
“Making [Pornograffiti] was an amazing time,” Nuno Bettencourt recalled in a 2014 Music Radar feature. “I’m still proud of it as it’s an album that broke the innocence for us. We were just a young-ish band that loved touring and we were doing it for all the right reasons. That success was what we had always dreamed of.”
