Songoftheday 9/4/19 - Waitin', watchin' the clock, it's four o'clock, it's got to stop, tell him, take no more, she practices her speech...

"Better Man" - Pearl Jam
from the album Vitalogy (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #13 (seven weeks)
Weeks in the Hot 100 Airplay Top-40: 26

Today's song of the day comes from the rock group Pearl Jam, who had landed a double-sided hit in the fall of 1994 with the two songs "Tremor Christ" and "Spin The Black Circle" from their third album Vitalogy. Both songs were moderate hits on rock radio, but mainstream pop stations didn't really get on board with either the esoteric lyricism of the former or the white-hot rage of the latter. The true first track promoted to pop radio from the set would be the more straightforward country-rock of "Better Man". Written by lead singer Eddie Vedder, who with the band produced the song with Brendan O'Brien, the song had a natural flow that made it an instant hit for fans, and despite the refusal of the act to release "Better Man" as a commercial single, making it ineligible to place on Billboard magazine's pop Hot 100 chart, nevertheless radio showed its love, tying 1994's "Daughter" for weeks at #1 on the Mainstream Rock radio chart despite even a lack of a music video, probably from distracting from the powerful message in the song about an abused wife (which Vedder admitted was about his mother)...

Since "Better Man" wasn't released as a physical "single", it was barred from placing on Billboard's official pop Hot 100 chart. However, on the airplay component of the list, the song spent 36 weeks there and made it to the top 20 in February of 1995. On the Mainstream Rock chart, the track spent two months (eight weeks) at #1, while also taking a month (four weeks) at #2 on the Modern Rock radio list. Internationally, the single climbed to #9 in Canada, but with the lack of released singles, never made any other charts.

The next song from Vitalogy promote to radio, "Corduroy", was also not released as a single, a growing trend with big rock records. The song reached both the Mainstream (#13) and Modern rock (#22) radio charts, and landed at #53 on Billboard's airplay component of the Hot 100 chart. That was followed by "Not For You", which was put out commercially worldwide with a non-album B-side "Out Of My Mind". "Not For You" peaked at #12 on Mainstream Rock and #38 on Modern Rock, and "Bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 in America at #102. Internationally the song peaked at #10 in New Zealand, and made the top-40 in Ireland (#26), Australia (#29), and the UK (#34). Finally, another commercial single, "Immortality", was released, and also "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #102, while hitting #29 in New Zealand, and #62 in Canada.

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First up I have what seems to be the tour behind the album...

 I have Vedder and Pete Townsend from The Who going to town on the song in 1999 in Chicago...

Here's the band playing Madison Square Garden in 2003...

next up in concert again in the Big Apple in 2010...

Fast forward to 2015 when Eddie Vedder guested on Letterman's going away shows doing a solo version...

In 2009, country duo Sugarland covered the song for their Live From The Inside concert album. With Jennifer Nettles voice the song takes a total different turn...

And finally on their induction to the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2017...

Up tomorrow: Geek-rockers tribute a long lost inspiration.