One of the most successful American rock bands in history Pearl Jam formed in Seattle in 1990, although they weren’t called Pearl Jam. The bands members had been a big part of the Seattle scene and got their first record deal using the name ‘Mookie Blaylock’ who was a real life NBA basketball player. They took the name after a trading card of the player found its way inside the cassette case of their first demo. They couldn’t use his name as a band with a record deal so they came up with Pearl Jam, they did though call their first album after his shirt number – Ten. They became the most popular rock band of the 90’s, in 2005 the readers of USA Today voted them the greatest American rock band of all time.