10 Rock Songs That Artists Didn't Want To Record
5. Better Man - Pearl Jam
Vitalogy by Pearl Jam marks an interesting place in the group's discography. After clashing over how big they were becoming and making a stand against Ticketmaster, a lot of this album feels like all of the tension of the past few years boiling over. Though there was a diamond in the rough with Better Man, Eddie Vedder was not really thinking the most of the track.
Written while Eddie was still a teenager, he originally wanted to give the song away to Chrissie Hynde for a charity record. Why you may ask? Well, because of how uncomfortable he was with his own celebrity, Vedder thought that the song was too poppy for the record, which sounds pretty snobby in retrospect. Then again, with half of the album is just a bunch of sonic experiments, the band actually convinced him to cut a version of the track just for the hell of it.
While it remained tucked away right at the tail end of the record, Better Man slowly grew into one of the biggest hits PJ had ever had, going on to be a crowd singalong without so much as a video or any big buildup in the press. Even though Eddie may not have wanted his star to rise that much, this is what happens when a song is so undeniable that the crowd comes to you.