Today in Music History: Pearl Jam release 'Ten'
August 27, 2015

History Highlight:
Today in 1991, Pearl Jam released their debut album Ten. Produced by Rick Parashar and recorded at London Bridge Studios in Seattle, most of the songs began as instrumental jams, to which Eddie Vedder added lyrics about topics such as depression, homelessness and abuse. The album would prove the group's most commercially successful to date, selling more than 13 million copies. It contains the hit singles "Alive," "Even Flow" and "Jeremy." In his review of the album, AllMusic staff writer Steve Huey called Ten a "flawlessly crafted hard rock masterpiece."
Also, Today In:
1965 - Elvis Presley played host to The Beatles, the "successors to the throne," in a reportedly awkward four-hour meeting at Presley's Bel Air, Calif., mansion.
1967 - Brian Epstein, the music entrepreneur and the manager of the Beatles, was found dead in a bedroom at his London home. A coroner's inquest concluded that Epstein died from an overdose of the sleeping pill Carbitrol.
1988 - "Monkey" gave George Michael his eighth U.S. No. 1 single of the 1980s; only Michael Jackson had more U.S. No. 1 hits in the '80s.
1990 - Stevie Ray Vaughan perished when the helicopter in which he was flying crashed in East Troy, Wis., during a dense fog. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Stevie Ray Vaughan No. 7 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of all time.
1994 - Boyz II Men started a 14-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "I'll Make Love To You." Ultimately, they knocked themselves out of the No. 1 slot with their follow-up hit, "On Bended Knee."
2013 - A risqué performance at the MTV Video Music Awards drew a formal grievance from the Parents Television Council (PTC), which issued a complaint against MTV in response to Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke dancing suggestively to the song, "Blurred Lines," two days earlier. Reacting to the controversy, Cyrus responded to her critics, saying, "They're overthinking it."
Birthdays:
Guitarist Alex Lifeson of Rush is 62.
No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal is 45.
Sarah Neufeld, the violinist for Arcade Fire, is 36.
