10 Best Hard Rock Ballads

Once Pearl Jam wrapped up their second record Vs., Eddie Vedder wanted to take the band in a different direction with the next record, Vitalogy. Across the album's runtime, songs would veer from art-rock pieces to hard rock scorchers to avant-garde soundscapes. Amid all the creative avenues the band went down, it was a session leftover from the previous record that became the record's biggest draw.

With just a simple guitar opening, "Better Man" tells a devastating scenario of a woman who is not compatible with her lover, yet stays with him despite her depressive state. The way Vedder writes the song around this woman practicing her speech only to pretend to sleep when her man gets home is both touching and heartbreaking at the same time. The lyric is brilliantly juxtaposed with the instrumentation, whose jaunty melody is bright and happy despite the tragic story underneath.

Vedder initially wanted to keep the song off the record because he thought it sounded too poppy, but the band insisted, giving Vitalogy one of its most soulful cuts. In live shows, fans even sing the entire first verse and chorus before Vedder's entrance, showing just how many souls this track has touched.