Early history of Pearl Jam begins with band Mother Love Bone formed from remaining members of Green River, Ament, Gossard and Fairweather with addition of Andrew Wood (lead singer & piano) and Greg Gilmore on drums. Mother Love Bone, formed in 1988, drew attention of critics, and soon they signed to Polygram.
Mother Love Bone's EP "Shine" (1989) and LP "Apple" (1990) were released after death of Andrew Wood, who was found dead of an overdose.
As a tribute to Wood, Ament and Gossard, with old friends Matt Cameron and Chris Cornell (both of Soundgarden) released "Temple Of The Dog" (also the name under which they played together from time to time). On the track "Hunger Strike", guest vocals of Eddie Vedder werw added. The album was a moderate success.
Gossard and Ament, with guitarist Mike McCready who joined them, recorded a three song demo tape. This tape was passed to Eddie Vedder, living in San Diego, by ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons. Inspired by what he heard, Vedder wrote lyrics, put his vocals to the tracks (the "Mamasan" trilogy) and mailed the tape back to Gossard. Gossard and Ament were so impressed that they had Vedder fly up from San Diego, and with Dave Krusen on drums the band was finnaly complete. They named themselves Mookie Blaylock, after the high school basketbal star (later NBA). People from Epic, their record label, were not so happy with that name, because of possible impilcations, so the band renamed themselves Pearl Jam. However, they honored Mookie by using his number as the title of their debut album, "Ten" (1991).
"Ten" was a huge art and commercial success, sold over 12000000 copies in U.S. only, and put Pearl Jam along with other great bands from Seattle. Together they represented Great Four of grunge. The bands were Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and Nirvana. They brought a new uniqe and fresh sound and vision of the generation born in mid sixties.
Phenomenon of Seattle and grunge was widely discussed in the beginnig of '90's, as never before one city, almost instantly gave four bands of such creative and artistic significance.
Pearl Jam's first three albums were huge successes, both comercially and critically. "Ten" (1991), "Vs." (1993) and "Vitalogy" (1994), were sold in 24000000 copies in U.S. only, and critics had nothing but words of approval and respect.
A lawsuit alleging a Ticketmaster monopoly (which Pearl Jam eventually lost), which stifled the launch of supportive tours, decreasing interest in music industry for "Seattle sound" after death of Curt Cobain, and turning of Pearl Jam to a less-commercial and experimental direction, especialy on "No Code", led to less selling of "No Code" (1996), "Yield" (1998), "Binaural" (2000) and "Riot Act" (2002), although they were on the very top of charts, both albums and singles from them.
In that period Pearl Jam left as only band which survived and overcame grunge and its early popularity, still bringing non-compromised sound and vision on every realese.
After the release of Binaural, and tours of Europe and North America, the band were the first to release high quality live recordings of each concert on the tour. They released 72 albums, most with two CDs, and set a record for most albums to debut in the Billboard top 200. A further 72 albums were released from the 2003 tour, although most of these were only available for online purchase, or via download.
In June 2003, the band announced they were leaving Epic Records, their label of twelve years. This has been described as "...one institution leaving another, the most popular and important American rock band of the '90's, voluntarily rejecting the grandest label heritage...". The bend said that they had no interest at that time of signing with another label, and that they were excited about their freedom.
If Pearl Jam's move shows successful, it may be the turning point of the music industry as it is known today.
Since then, Epic released "Lost Dogs" (2003), a compilation of B-sides and preaviosly non-realesed tracks, "Live at Benaroya Hall" (2004) and "Rearviewmirror: Greatest Hits 1991-2003" (2004), some kind of ultimate collection of Pearl Jam's songs.