Ten

Ten is Pearl Jam’s debut studio album, released on August 27, 1991 through Epic Records. Following the disbanding of bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard’s previous group Mother Love Bone, the two recruited vocalist Eddie Vedder, guitarist Mike McCready, and drummer Dave Krusen to form Pearl Jam in 1990. Most of the songs began as instrumental jams, to which Vedder added lyrics about topics such as depression, homelessness, and abuse.

Ten was not an immediate success, but by late 1992 it had reached number two on the Billboard 200 chart. The album produced three hit singles: “Alive”, “Even Flow”, and “Jeremy”. While Pearl Jam was accused of jumping on the grunge bandwagon at the time, Ten was instrumental in popularizing alternative rock in the mainstream. In February 2013, the album was certified diamond by the RIAA in the United States, crossing the 10 million mark in sales. It remains Pearl Jam’s most commercially successful album.

The album was featured on several “best of” lists, including a rank of #209 on Rolling Stone’s list of the Greatest 500 Albums of All Time list and #6 on their list of the 100 Greatest Albums of the ‘90s.

The band took the title of this album from the jersey number of NBA player Mookie Blaylock. Oddly enough, Mookie Blaylock was the original name of Pearl Jam, but the former’s signing of a Nike endorsement deal led to the band’s name change.