10 Hard Rock Songs Added At The Last Minute

For most of their early career, Pearl Jam were not a band that concerned themselves with pop songs. Though the band did end up having hits like "Alive" and "Even Flow," it was normally just a catchy rock song rather than a deliberate attempt to get radio play. However, things began to change once producer Brendan O'Brien took a listen to Eddie Vedder's material.

Buried beneath the more rock material the band were playing was "Better Man," which O'Brien pushed to be a single for the band. Though it had been written long before Pearl Jam existed, Eddie Vedder was adamant about not releasing it, thinking that it would be too pop for the band's typical sound. On the other hand, the band's eccentric experiments across the album Vitalogy proved to be so off the wall that Vedder relented and included the song at the tail end of the record.

Quickly gaining traction, "Better Man" has become known as one of the group's most accessible songs, with one of the most ear-grabbing choruses they had ever written. Even if Vedder remains a bit apprehensive about his star power, "Better Man" has come a long way from being an outtake to a stadium anthem.