Extreme: Jimmy Fallon’s ‘More Than Words’ Is Our ‘New Favorite Version’
On Monday night’s episode of The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Jack Black and Jimmy Fallon recreated the video for “More Than Words,” the 1991 chart-topper by the Boston metallurgists Extreme. Black, inhabiting the role of Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone, and Fallon, playing guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, performed the stripped-down ballad in a manner nearly identical to the song’s original video — right down to the band’s mannerisms.
“I was deeply flattered from the beginning of this video,” Bettencourt tells Rolling Stone. “But it was when Jimmy attempted my patented ‘hair pullback’ and nailed it…I got emotional. That brought tears to both my eyes, not just one.”
Cherone also praised Fallon and Black’s version. “The re-creation of the video was spot-on, from the black fingernails to the Bic lighters,” he tells Rolling Stone. “And they nailed the vocals. My new favorite version!”
The original video for “More Than Words” was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who later helmed videos for Smashing Pumpkins and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The black and white clip, shot during Extreme’s tour, eventually became an MTV staple. “I thought the visual did not take away from the music, and I think that’s one of the reasons the video does not get old,” Cherone told Rolling Stone earlier this year. In 1992, “Weird Al” Yankovic parodied the video’s aesthetic with his clip for “You Don’t Love Me Anymore.”