Ongoing History Daily: Eddie Vedder makes amends for a rip-off

With so many people writing songs based on musical theory derived from the Western 12-tone scale, inevitably, people will inadvertently come up with the same idea as someone else. This happens all the time, even with seasoned songwriters.

In 1982, The English Beat released a great single called “Save It For Later,” which became a favourite of a kid in San Diego named Eddie Vedder. He loved the feel of the song so much that he unconsciously incorporated some of its chords and structure into a song that would late be called “Better Man” and recorded by Pearl Jam.

Years later, he realized what he had done and felt terrible about it. He tracked down Dave Wakeling of The Beat in person, gave him a cheque for $10,000, and said “Sorry about that, man.” Eddie later covered “Save It for Later” for an episode of the TV series, The Bear.