Songoftheday 12/24/17 - Life's ambition occupy my time priorities confuse the mind, happiness one step behind this inner peace I've yet to find...
from the album Extreme II: Pornograffiti (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 17
Today's song of the day comes from the funk-metal band Extreme, whose sophomore album Pornograffiti spun off an out-of-character #1 pop hit with the acoustic ballad "More Than Words" in the summer of 1991. They followed that up with another folksy number from the mostly-metal album, "Hole Hearted". Written by lead singer Gary Cherone and guitarist Nuno Betancourt, the track, full of tight harmonies and strumming acoustic guitars, was an even catchier single than the first, and pop radio of course went along...
"Hole Hearted" became Extreme's second and final top-40 pop hit in October of 1991. The song also spent four weeks at #2 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart, as well as crossing over to their Adult Contemporary (or 'easy listening') format tally at #32. Internationally, the record reached the top-40 in Canada (#2), the Netherlands (#9), the UK (#12), Australia (#24), and Sweden (#30). After its success, earlier single "Get The Funk Out" was re-released, and while it missed the pop chart, the hard-rocking track climbed to #34 on the Mainstream Rock list. Another song from the album, the power-ballad "Song For Love", was released as a single in the UK, and went to #12 there.
In 1992, the band followed up with their third release, III Sides To Every Story, which also reached the top ten on the albums chart like its predecessor. A more ambitious effort, with meatier song topics, it was actually a stronger record, but didn't sell like the one with the two top ten hits on it. Lead single "Rest In Peace" was their sole #1 hit on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, staying there for two weeks, but only slipped on to the pop Hot 100 at #96. Then came "Stop The World", another social commentary that employed the gift of harmony they used in "Hole Hearted", but again only popped on to the pop chart at #95, though it peaked at #9 on the Mainstream Rock chart. But over in the UK, both of those tracks did very well, reaching #13 and #22 respectively. A third song from that album, "Am I Ever Gonna Change", had the folksy beat of "Hole Hearted" nixed with hard metal, and nabbed Extreme a third top ten rock radio hit from the set at #10. Meanwhile, in Britain the song "Tragic Comic", did pretty respectably, climbing to #15.
During the recording of their fourth album, Waiting For The Punchline, drummer Paul Geary left Extreme for what would become a very successful music management career (even becoming Extreme's manager). Replaced by Mike Mangini (who would eventually join Dream Theater), that album came out in 1995, with second single "Hip Today" the only success from the record, hitting #26 on the American rock radio chart and just missing the British top-40 at #44. At that time, Extreme split up, with Cherone ending up joining Van Halen as their new lead singer in 1996. He only lasted one album, though; in spite of the set spinning off three hit singles on rock radio, including the #1 "Without You", sales were way off the norm for the hard rock titans, and Cherone departed soon after. Extreme have reunited sporadically since 2004, even releasing a new album in 2008, Saudades De Rock, which landed on the albums chart at #78.
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Here's the band performing the song live in concert in 1991...
...and again in 2003 with Nuno and Gary playing with guitar greats Steve Hackett and John Paul Jones...
Back to the band in 2010 on their Take Us Alive concert album...
And finally, from the band's 25th anniversary of the Pornograffiti album tour this year...
I'm taking a day off for Christmas - I'll be back on Tuesday with a dance-pop group with no limits.
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