As time has gone on McCready has contributed more to Pearl Jam's songwriting process. McCready's first writing contribution for Pearl Jam was co-writing the music for the B-side "Yellow Ledbetter" (from the "Jeremy" single), which has since become a regular set closing song during Pearl Jam's live concerts. After co-writing material for "Vs." and writing the music for the song "Present Tense" from the album "No Code", he wrote the music for three of the tracks on the band's 1998 album, "Yield", including one of the band's biggest hits, "Given to Fly". All but one ("Force of Nature", from "Backspacer") of McCready's sole compositions for Pearl Jam use alternate tunings, such as open G on "Faithfull" (from "Yield"), a variation of open D on "Given to Fly", and a variation of open G on "Marker in the Sand" (from "Pearl Jam"). McCready made his first lyrical contribution for the band with the track "Inside Job", which closes the band's 2006 self-titled album.