Modern Rock No. 1s: Pearl Jam and "Daughter"
Mark Blankenship of "The Lost Songs Project" returns to talk about Pearl Jam's first Modern Rock Tracks chart topper, "Daughter," a song about rising above and persevering
Pearl Jam - “Daughter”
Weeks atop the Billboard Modern Rock chart: 1 week (January 8, 1994)
Previous Modern Rock #1 hit: The Lemonheads - “Into Your Arms”
Next Modern Rock #1 hit: Gin Blossoms - “Found Out About You”
Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers during this time:
Mariah Carey - “Hero” (3 total weeks, 12/25/93 through 1/8/94)
Editor’s note: This week’s column comes from , a friend of Chart Chat and creator of the newsletter . In addition to the superlative work on his Substack, Mark is a previous contributor to Chart Chat, writing a terrific piece about The Sundays and “Here’s Where The Story Ends” back in September 2023.
Pearl Jam has a secret weapon. Like every other band that’s chiseled on the Mt. Rushmore of grunge – Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains – they can melt your face with their savage rock and roll, and in their early years, they could get awfully dirty while they did it. I don’t mean sexually dirty. I mean Pearl Jam has songs like “Rats” and “Animal” and “Tremor Christ” that sound like sweating through your shirt, covered in mud, wrestling with a bobcat. It’s the platonic ideal of mosh pit music.
But then comes a song like “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” or “Better Man” or that cover of “Last Kiss.” The anger evaporates, and for a few minutes, you get beauty. What’s more, you get beauty filtered through the perspective of well-drawn characters. The woman in “Better Man” is in mourning for her life. The lady behind the counter sparks a nostalgic flood for the narrator, and it makes him care about her in a way he didn’t know was possible. These lovely songs have empathy, is what I’m saying, and they make Pearl Jam distinct in their genre. None of their peers can evoke the melancholy of another person’s life quite like they can.
“Daughter” distills this gift. It’s the story of a girl whose family is doing her wrong. We don’t know exactly what’s happening, but we know there’s some kind of violence (possibly emotional, possible physical). We know there’s loneliness. We know that her parents are hurting the kid they’re supposed to be protecting. Eddie Vedder sums up that dynamic when he sings, “She holds the hand that holds her down.”
About that singing: Vedder begins the song with a gentle croon, softly and sadly laying out this girl’s situation. There’s a folk-rock intimacy to his voice that somehow makes the kid’s situation even more painful. It’s like he wants to be gentle with her, because nobody in her life will be. It’s not until the end of the bridge that he unleashes a screaming wail, and that’s only when he sings “she will rise above.”
I love this detail. Vedder could belt the big notes to express anger, but instead he uses them for hope. The band follows right behind, turning a gentle acoustic arrangement into a full-on rock party. The volume, the intensity, the passion — they’re a form of furious optimism. This girl will survive, damn it. This girl will rise above.
It’s interesting that when “Daughter” topped the Modern Rock Charts, Mariah Carey was atop the Hot 100 with “Hero,” because Mariah’s song is also about rising above hard times. It’s easy to imagine her looking at the little girl from Pearl Jam’s song and assuring her that “a hero lies in you.”
I can still sing every word of “Hero,” but it’s “Daughter” that pierces through my middle-aged exterior. There are just enough specifics in the lyrics to help me imagine this particular girl in a particular world, moving toward something better. I care about her, and I like singing on her behalf, as loudly as I can.
Rating: 10/10
Chart Check
Other notable MRT chart songs from this time period
Kudos to
from , not only for his terrific writeup of “Daughter,” but for lending his insights into “Chart Check” this week and being a ray of shining light for sweet Björk, who is highlighted below in a tone far more positive than I could ever muster. Also, some solid reviews of Kate Bush and a fun pairing of R.E.M. and Natalie Merchant.“Big Time Sensuality” by Björk (#5): If you’re a longtime Chart Chat reader, then you know Matt doesn’t much care for Björk’s music, so allow me to raise the flag for her. (And knowing Björk, the flag is made of dodo feathers.) “Big Time Sensuality” is her most mainstream release. Instead of an experimental sound bath, it’s got a steady dance beat. Instead of lyrics about, like, the green worm in your brain, it’s got straightforward statements about wanting to sleep with someone you just met two seconds ago. And for me, this is a winning combination! I love hearing Björk’s shrieky vocals on a song like this. If anyone else sang it, it might be an anonymous dancefloor soundtrack. When she sings it, it’s an erotic yawp from another world.
“Rubberband Girl” by Kate Bush (#7): I didn’t know who Kate Bush was when she released this single, so at first I thought she was inspired by the music of Tori Amos. (Now I realize it’s the other way around.) This ended up being my entry to her catalogue, and it’s a perfect starting point. The song is up-tempo and accessible, and it’s also agreeably weird. She even makes a rubber band sound effect! In fact, this pairs well with “Big Time Sensuality” as the poppiest songs from two of rock’s most adventurous artists.
“Photograph” by R.E.M. and Natalie Merchant (#9): You couldn’t ask for a better pairing of modern rock superstars from the early ‘90s. Between them, R.E.M. and Merchant (with 10,000 Maniacs, of course) were the standard bearers of thoughtful, melodic rock, and over on
, I wrote about just how many descendants they have in contemporary music. Natalie Merchant and Michael Stipe’s voices blend together like peanut butter and chocolate on this track. They both sing with so much ache, you know? Throw in the jangly guitars and the lyrics about a woman whose youth is trapped forever in a photograph, and you get a wonderful soundtrack for a cold and a rainy day.If you like what I’m doing here at Chart Chat, and you’ve thought to yourself, “I’d love to get that guy a slice of pizza for his efforts,” I’ve created this handy button that’ll allow you to get me a slice of pizza for my efforts. I appreciate the support in whatever form I receive it, even if it’s just to come here and spend some time with me and my writing.
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This and "Better Man" are my two favorite Pearl Jam songs. While it's hard not to think of the 90s when I hear them, they're both timeless in so many ways.