On a grey and dreary Seattle day midway through March of 1991, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Dave Krusen, and Eddie Vedder walked into Rick Parashar's London Bridge Studio to record their debut album.
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The five-piece outfit had just joined together several months earlier, renaming themselves Pearl Jam at the behest of their label, Epic Records, who took issue with their previous moniker, Mookie Blaylock. Having been forced to drop their name, a reference to a then-active NBA point guard, the band decided to name their debut LP after the real-life Blaylock's jersey number: Ten.
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The record became a huge breakthrough moment for the still-underground Seattle grunge scene, generating Pearl Jam's first three hit singles – "Alive," "Even Flow," and "Jeremy" – and spawning untold multitudes of copycat acts hoping to recreate Pearl Jam's signature sound. To date, the album has been certified 13x platinum by the RIAA and is the band's most commercially successful album.
With Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready set to be honored this summer at the MusiCares Concert For Recovery with the prestigious Stevie Ray Vaughan Award, take a look back at the track list for the album that introduced his band to the world and voice your opinion: What's your favorite song from Pearl Jam's Ten?
Concert For Recovery: Get Your Tickets Now
Presented by Amazon Music and benefitting MusiCares, the Concert For Recovery will take place at the Showbox in Seattle on May 10 and feature performances by Barrett Martin, Guns N' Roses' Duff McKagan and Slash, Mike Ness, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith, and Nancy Wilson of Heart. Tickets to the charity event are still available. All proceeds will benefit MusiCares's addiction recovery initiatives.
