Pearl Jam’s Best Musical Moments on TV and Movies: See the List

Pearl Jam notoriously refrained from making music videos for a few years in the 1990s when they were one of the biggest bands in the world. But their music has regularly graced TV and the big screen in other ways, appearing on movie soundtracks like Judgment Night, The Basketball Diaries, and Rule over me.

And Pearl Jam songs have popped up all over TV, sometimes in surprising places like more than a dozen episodes of CBS How To. Case closed.

Here’s a look back at the top 10 Pearl Jam needle drops in film and TV.

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10. “Man of the Hour” – Big fish (2003)

In 2003, Tim Burton adapted Daniel Wallace Big Fish: A novel of mythical proportions, the story of a man’s reconciliation with his dying father. Burton sought out Pearl Jam to write a song for the film, and Eddie Vedder, who often writes cathartically about not having met his late father, was inspired to write “Man of the Hour” after screening a first cut of Big fish. The moving ballad, which plays at the end of the film, was nominated for a Golden Globe.

09. “Great Wave” – surf (2007)

Eddie Vedder is a dedicated surfer who wrote lyrics for several songs in 1991 Ten surfing the waves. But the band isn’t exactly “surf rock” in the traditional sense, and “Big Wave” from Pearl Jam’s 2006 self-titled album is one of the few Vedder songs that simply celebrates the fun of surfing. A year later, it provided the unlikely opportunity to feature a Pearl Jam song in an animated children’s film, as “Big Wave” performed the soundtrack of penguin Cody Maverick (Shia LeBeouf) competing in a competition. of surfing.

08. “Spin the Black Circle” – Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber (2022)

You could say that Pearl Jam is the unofficial house band of Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber, with songs appearing regularly on Showtime’s new series starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as controversial Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. “Spin the Black Circle”, the first fast and heavy single of the 1994s Vitologyappears in a scene in Episode 2 where Kalanick describes how Uber will use Mafia strategies to take over New York’s taxi business.

07. “Make the Evolution” – Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber (2022)

“Do The Evolution”, one of Eddie Vedder’s most satirical lyrics, is about the pride of humanity’s belief in its own superiority over other species. That makes the 1998 track a fitting backdrop for the series premiere, in which Travis Kalanick embarks on a quest to replace traditional taxis with his ride-sharing app. Watch out for Vedder’s cries, “It’s evolution, baby!” in the background as Kalanick overcomes resistance from local government in San Francisco.

06. “Corduroy” – Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber (2022)

“Corduroy” is one of Pearl Jam’s greatest songs, a passionate piece of Vitology which became a bigger radio hit than some of the album’s official singles. And the song perfectly captures the mood of the final scene of episode 3 of super pumpedas tensions rise between Travis Kalanick and one of Uber’s early investors, Bill Gurley (Kyle Chandler).

05. “Wish List” – Billions (2021)

1998 “Wish List” Yield is a slow, contemplative song where Eddie Vedder sings a litany of fantasies like “I wish I was a messenger and all the news was good”. In the climactic Season 5 finale of Billions, “Wishlist” appears in a dark scene where many of the financial drama’s main characters reunite for a farewell to beleaguered hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis). But the sentimental mood created by the song is a bit of a clever misdirection, as a plot twist is revealed after Ax fails to show up.

04. “Just Breathe” – kodachrome (2018)

“Just Breathe”, the second acoustic single of 2009 Rear spacinghas become the best streaming track from Pearl Jam production in the 21st century, thanks in part to its frequent use in series such as One Tree Hill, the blacklistand Chateauand documentaries Gleason and the way i see it.

In kodachrome, a charming 2018 comedy-drama where terminally ill photographer Ben (Ed Harris) reconnects with his son Matt (Jason Sudeikis), “Just Breathe” accompanies a road trip montage. But with creative editing, director Mark Raso cuts from editing to a scene where “Just Breathe” continues in the diegetic soundtrack, as Ben and Matt listen to the song on the car radio.

03. “Yellow Ledbetter” – Stumptown (2020)

One of the fleeting gems of the 2019-20 TV season was the ABC crime drama Stumptown, based on the comic of the same name. Nostalgic musical selections abound in Stumptown, especially when private detective Dex (Cobie Smulders) drives around in his battered 1991 Ford Mustang GT with an old mixtape stuck in the tape recorder. In the penultimate episode of the series, Dex hears several old Pearl Jam songs that evoke memories of his teenage years. The most moving moment is triggered by “Yellow Ledbetter,” a bluesy B-side to single “Jeremy” that has become one of Pearl Jam’s most popular songs over the years.

02. “Present” – the last dance (2020)

The end of The Last Dance. by Pearljam

the last dance, ESPN’s acclaimed documentary miniseries about Michael Jordan’s final 1997–98 season with the Chicago Bulls, often used music from the era to help evoke the spirit of the times. And the 10th and final episode culminated with an evocative montage to “Present Tense,” the emotional centerpiece of Pearl Jam’s most underrated album, 1996. no codes. It was also a fitting choice as the scene included Jordan’s bandmate Dennis Rodman, a Pearl Jam superfan and longtime friend of the band who featured in one of the many Polaroid photos that adorned no codesthe cover.

01. “State of love and trust” – Simple (1992)

When director Cameron Crowe decided to set his second film on Seattle’s buzzing rock scene, even he had no idea how big the bands featured in the film would grow. Pearl Jam was still a relative unknown, in full recording Ten in the spring of 1991, when Crowe filmed Singles and cast Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament as members of Matt Dillon’s fictional band Citizen Dick.

By the time Simple released in theaters in 1992, Ten was multi-platinum and the two new songs that Pearl Jam contributed to the film helped make the soundtrack album a hit. One of the band’s fiercest early songs, “State of Love and Trust,” scored a scene with Linda (Kyra Sedgwick) and Debbie (Sheila Kelley) at local rock clubs. Cameron Crowe has remained close friends with the band over the years, directing their 2011 documentary Pearl Jam Twenty and featuring several Pearl Jam songs in its 2016 series Roadies.

Want more Pearl Jam? Check out this playlist of their greatest hits.