10 Classic Songs That Weren't Supposed To Be Hits
2. Black - Pearl Jam
Not every song that you put out is necessarily single material. Instead of just trying to write a hit every single time you go into the studio, sometimes you just want to sit with a song to capture a moment rather than make a million pounds out of it. On the other hand, some songs tend to be so good that the mainstream comes to you.
When assembling tracks for what would become their colossal record Ten, Pearl Jam had one epic track midway through the record with Black. Written musically by Stone Gossard, a lot of the lyrics of this song are an open-hearted love letter to one of Eddie Vedder's former flames, with him not really taking the breakup all that well.
Though the record company lit up when they heard the song, Eddie insisted that it not be a single, instead to have it only on the album because of its personal connotations.
That didn't stop the radio stations from playing it though, with most DJs latching onto the song after playing through the rest of the record. From there, Black took on a life of its own, becoming not only the signature Pearl Jam song, but one of the most foundational rock songs of the entire decade. Not bad for a tune that wasn't even supposed to be successful right out of the gate.