TO THE "EXTREME"...A TRIBUTE TO EXTREME, THE ROCK BAND

Don't let the title of this blog fool you. Its not about Vanilla Ice's debut album where he spawned his very first big (and only) hit ICE ICE BABY. This is about the rock band called EXTREME. Remember them from the early nineties? If you don't, then maybe the song title "More Than Words" will ring a bell. Oh well, Extreme, the rock band became popular worldwide with that number one song. Released in March of 1991, it came out of their only successful album to date - Extreme II: Pornograffiti. Where in the world are they now?

They have been around, only, in touring nowadays. Let's backtrack a bit. Back in 1985, founding members Gary Cherone, the lead vocalist, and drummer Paul Geary were in a band "The Dream" . This is where they derived their new band name "EXTREME" as in "ex dream". They later added Nuno Bettencourt, that iconic long haired dude who sang "More Than Words" with Cherone, and bass player Pat Badger. Their first album, simply entitled EXTREME, did not do well in the charts. They had a single from that album called "Play With Me" which was used as the "mall chase" song in the movie "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure". However humble, sales from that self titled debut album was sufficient to come up with that follow up album Pornograffiti.

Extreme II: Pornograffiti is the album where many rock fans truly remember them as a great Rock Band. The carrier single was not more than words, it wasn't even the second. The first two singles were "Decadence Dance" and "Get the funk out" which charted as high as number 19 in the UK. Both songs didn't even chart in the US, or elsewhere for that matter. "More Than Words", the third release, is an acoustic ballad that became their signature song and their biggest hit ever. That song probably is one of the most requested songs of all time in all radio stations around the world up to now. Talk about mortal power, that song has. They have had a follow up single "Hole Hearted" which was another acoustic performance and was also successful in mainstream rock radio. I have to admit, "Hole Hearted" is one of my personal favorites of all time. After that brief success though, Extreme never really made another major impact in the music scene. They did release two more albums "III Sides To Every Story" in 1992, and "Waiting For The Puchline" in 1995, but both were financial disasters. They eventually broke up in early 1996.

Over the years, former members of Extreme embarked on their own individual ventures. Gary Cherone joined Van Halen once upon a rock time, though the mix with Eddie Van Halen didn't work out so he was booted out. Nuno Bettencourt released a solo album in 1996 but failed, then formed and disformed multiple bands such as the "Mourning Widows" and "Population I" which was later renamed to "Dramagods". All efforts came to a naught for Bettencourt.

Then one day, in 2004, Extreme members decided to reform. They probably realized that "what the hey, what are we doing out there, we're supposed to be Extreme". So to the "Extreme" they did. Now, they are still together since reforming, though not as loud as they used to be, they have had successful stints in multiple rock shows and had their own world tour in 2008 and 2009.

Moral of the story? There is none. All there is to it is that Rock and Roll is like a roller coaster. Sometimes you're up and more often you're down. Most important thing is, to stick with what you have and what you are and hope that one day, you'll get that glory back. Anway long live to the "Extreme". Fans never die. I'm one of them.