"More Than Words" is a song by Americanrock bandExtreme. It is anacoustic rock ballad featuring guitar work byNuno Bettencourt and the vocals ofGary Cherone (with harmony vocals from Bettencourt). They both wrote the song, which was produced byMichael Wagener and represented a departure from the band's usual funk metal style.[3]
"More Than Words" was released as the third single from Extreme's second album,Pornograffitti (1990), on March 12, 1991, byA&M Records. In the United States, it topped theBillboard Hot 100 chart and was certified gold by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It additionally topped the charts of Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, and it entered the top 10 in 10 other countries. The music video for the song was directed byJonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.
The song is an acoustic ballad in which the singer wants his lover to do more than simply saying "I love you" to demonstrate her love for him. Bettencourt described it as a warning that the phrase was becoming meaningless: "People use it so easily and so lightly that they think you can say that and fix everything, or you can say that and everything's OK. Sometimes you have to do more and you have to show it—there's other ways to say 'I love you'".[4]
The band fought with their record company to get "More Than Words" released as a single. At one point, Bettencourt even quit the band over the issue. In 2016, Bettencourt toldBillboard: "'Our label at the time [A&M Records] didn't want to release "More Than Words" as a single because there was nothing on the radio like that at the time. The label said, "Who's going to play it?" Everybody was doing big power ballads at the time, and this was more like anEverly Brothers orBeatles track. But we fought for it'".[5]
"It became a monster. It took a life of its own and we couldn't kill it. ... I think it'll pass the test of time."
"That song gave us the freedom to make the record we really wanted to make when we started recordingour third disc," Cherone toldKNAC. "It got us doing huge tours all over the states and around the world... As the nineties went on, however, we really started to resent the song. We were tagged 'the More Than Words guys'. We didn't like the perception the song created about the band. I remember being on tour withAerosmith in Poland... it was on that tour we decided we would not play the song. We just didn't do it. A couple nights into the tour,Steven Tyler writes in big letters on our dressing room door, 'Play the fucking song!' His attitude was almost father-like. He was like, 'Look, this is your first time in Poland. When do you think you will be back? They want to hear it, so play it!'"[7]
AllMusic editor William Ruhlmann noted that on the song, theband pursued "acoustic balladry".[8] Kira L. Billik fromAssociated Press described "More Than Words" as a "sweet, pure acousticballad", "whose message is that the words 'I love you' are becoming meaningless".[9] The song was also labeled as a "nontraditional love song".[6]Larry Flick fromBillboard magazine felt this "tender, sparsely producedrock/love ballad proves that sometimes less really is more. The spotlight here is on the band's striking vocal harmonies, as well as its shimmering acoustic guitar work".[10] The Daily Vault's Sean McCarthy called it a "beautiful, minimal acoustic number [that] made the band huge" and concluded that "for the band, 'More Than Words' is the song that will still get airplay."[11]Diane Cardwell fromEntertainment Weekly called it "a simple, almostfolkie ballad using just two voices and a single acoustic guitar."[12] Kirsten Frickle fromEl Paisano described it as an "all-acoustic ballad that is so beautiful it will make your hair stand on end".[13]
Pan-European magazineMusic & Media labeled the song as "folky"[14] and "a calming piece of music, aptly produced byMichael Wagener." They added, "It shows the band from a totally different angle. And it must be said, they handle this ballad extremely well."[15] Alan Jones fromMusic Week named it Pick of the Week, remarking that it is "a subdued, lilting acoustic workout that suggests nothing more thanSimon & Garfunkel in its more angelic passages."[16] Carrie Borzillo fromRecord-Journal called it an "Everly Brothers-style" song.[17] A reviewer fromSandwell Evening Mail wrote, "If ever a song could be unrepresentative of a band's output, Extreme's worldwide smash hit ballad 'More Than Words' is it."[18] Marc Andrews fromSmash Hits found it "eye-moistening".[19] Tom Nordlie fromSpin viewed it as "a love ballad that sounds like the Everly Brothers or earlyBeatles." He added, "SingerGary Cherone harmonizes with himself as guitar-friendNuno Bettencourt strums clean, jazzy chord accompaniment, and that's it. No sudden escalation to bombast in the middle, no reneging on the song's original promise."[20] Chad Bowar writing for LiveAbout placed the song on his list of the "Best 20 Hair Metal Ballads of the '80s and '90s".[21]
On March 23, 1991, "More Than Words" entered the USBillboard Hot 100 at number 81 and soon after reached number one. It also reached number two in the United Kingdom and reached number one in four other countries.
The song's music video[22] was filmed in black and white[5] and was produced and directed by American film and music video directorsJonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. It starts withPat Badger turning off his amplifier and putting down his bass, andPaul Geary putting down his drumsticks. Nuno and Gary are then seen performing the song, while the other band members are shown in front of them, holding up theirlighters. In the video's music rendition, the song ends abruptly before Nuno's final solo and coda.
^Pennanen, Timo (2006).Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Tammi.ISBN978-951-1-21053-5.
