“Give Way,” the rare, unauthorized promotional Pearl Jam live album is getting an official release on CD and vinyl for Record Store Day 2023.
Originally intended for release in 1998, the album includes 17-tracks from the band’s March 5, 1998 concert at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The record was meant to be a promotional giveaway item for the first 50,000 fans who purchased Pearl Jam’s “Single Video Theory” film at Best Buy in 1998. The electronics chain promoted the giveaway in newspapers across the country but had to rescind the offer because Pearl Jam’s management and its record label did not authorize the release of the live album.
Instead of receiving a free promotional Pearl Jam CD, fans who purchased “Single Video Theory” received any CD valued at $14.99 or less for free. According to Rolling Stone, Best Buy lost $500,000 on attempting to give away the unauthorized release and all 50,000 copies of the album were returned to Sony to be destroyed and only a handful of copies were kept and have remained out of circulation.