The best Pearl Jam songs ever

Seattle, 1984-1990. In the beginning there were Green River, Malfunkshun, Shadow and Mother Love Bone. Then, after the tragic demise of the latter, a San Diego singer (and basketball player) called Eddie Vedder was asked to join a new band founded by Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament... after an audition, the rest became history. And Pearl Jam were born.

After almost a quarter of a century and 10 studio albums later, the band is one of the few rock giants still operating like it was the Seventies again. Live, Pearl Jam are a war machine; they are so popular they can pretty much enjoy the freedom of doing anything they please and want to experiment with... in other words they are among the biggest bands of all times.
Since their beginnings, Pearl Jam broadened the spectrum of their musical range with every new release. And Vedder sought to make the band's musical output less catchy: "I felt that with more popularity, we were going to be crushed, our heads were going to pop like grapes". From 1994 the band began to incorporate more punk influences, then elements of garage rock, worldbeat, experimental art rock, folk rock, pop and new wave... and this contributed making them grow as musicians.
At the same time, fans got to understand Pearl Jam really were for real and weren’t sticking to a formula just to milk the cow. And this explains why the band's fanbase following has been compared to that of the Grateful Dead's: Rolling Stone magazine, or instance, wrote that Pearl Jam "toured incessantly and became one of rock's great arena acts, attracting a fanatical, Grateful Dead-like cult following with marathon, true-believer shows in the vanishing spirit of Bruce Springsteen, the Who and U2”.

So, whit a body of work this wide (ten studio albums, eight live ones, more than 30 singles, three greatest hits compilations and a myriad of official bootlegs), Pearl Jam fans have a super-wide choice when they have to pick their favourite tracks of all time by the band. And sometimes it could be confusing... or, simply, unless you are a hardcore fanatic, you might not know every single song Vedder & co. recorded or played.

One of the best guides, on this topic, was compiled by Rolling Stone magazine, whose editors assembled a list called “15 Insanely Great Pearl Jam Songs Only Hardcore Fans Know”: a real treat for those who already are familiar with the most mainstream tracks, but might want to look for something more esoteric or lesser known.

Then there are the classic top ten lists. Stereogum assembled one in 2013 and decided their top track is “Corduroy” (if you want to know the other nine songs, just click here).
Again, in 2013, Ultimate Guitar, posted a list of Pearl Jam’s best 10 songs – obviously from the point of view of guitar players. The top slot was assigned to “Black”. Eventually also Loudwire chose “Black” as the best composition by the Seattle band, when published the list called “10 Best Pearl Jam songs” last year.