Artist · chart history · #194 in alternative artist polls · #265 in indie & aaa artist polls
PJ Harvey
Solo artist Bridport
PJ Harvey is an artist from Bridport. PJ Harvey has 165 chart appearances on 104 radio countdowns from 33 stations on RockLists, spanning 1991–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Down by the Water”, which appears on 55 lists with a best position of #17. The station that charted PJ Harvey most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 26 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1995.
Polly Jean Harvey was born on 9 October 1969 and came out of Bridport with a voice and a guitar and no interest in playing nice. She started in 1988 singing, playing guitar and blowing saxophone in a local band called Automatic Dlamini, whose frontman, John Parish, has been her creative partner ever since. In 1991 she formed a trio and gave it her own name, and PJ Harvey was born.
The trio made 2 albums, and they hit like a slap. Dry, in 1992, had "Sheela Na Gig" and "Dress": raw, lurching blues-punk, the guitars bare-knuckled and Harvey's voice swinging from growl to shriek. Rid of Me in 1993 was louder, nastier and more exposed still, the title song coiling and snapping like something cornered. Then the trio broke up, and she carried on alone.
To Bring You My Love, in 1995, was a reinvention. "Down by the Water" is a swampy, menacing blues, the title track a slow, smoldering burn, and "Send His Love to Me" aches with longing. Since then she has kept moving, making records with Parish, her former bandmate Rob Ellis, Mick Harvey and Eric Drew Feldman, and working a lot with the producer Flood. Is This Desire? in 1998 brought "A Perfect Day Elise", and Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea in 2000 found her in a brighter, big-city mood with "Good Fortune", "Big Exit" and "You Said Something". Uh Huh Her followed in 2004 with "The Letter".
That 2000 album won her the Mercury Prize in 2001, and Let England Shake did it again in 2011, making her the only artist to take it twice. There's also a BAFTA, 8 Brit Award nominations and 8 Grammy nominations, and the 2013 Birthday Honours made her an MBE, for her music. She plays autoharp as well as guitar and saxophone, and she has never once sounded like anyone else.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by PJ Harvey on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Down by the Water | 55 | #17 | – | 1995 | |
| 2 | You Said Something | 14 | #79 | – | 2001 | |
| 3 | Sheela Na Gig | 12 | #2 | – | 1992 | |
| 4 | Good Fortune | 17 | #2 | – | 2001 | |
| 5 | Rid Of Me | 6 | #4 | – | 1993 | |
| 6 | This Mess We're In | 6 | #11 | – | 2001 | |
| 7 | Big Exit | 3 | #6 | – | 2000 | |
| 8 | A Perfect Day Elise | 13 | #68 | – | 1998 | |
| 9 | The Words That Maketh Murder | 3 | #15 | – | 2011 | |
| 10 | The Letter | 2 | #16 | – | 2004 | |
| 11 | Shame | 2 | #23 | – | 2005 | |
| 12 | The Wheel | 3 | #386 | – | – | |
| 13 | Send His Love To Me | 2 | #11 | – | 1995 | |
| 14 | To Bring You My Love | 2 | #34 | – | 1995 | |
| 15 | Dress | 1 | #2 | – | 1991 | |
| 16 | C'mon billy | 2 | #193 | – | – | |
| 17 | 50ft Queenie | 2 | #15 | – | 1993 | |
| 18 | The Community Of Hope | 2 | #42 | – | 2016 | |
| 19 | Mess We're In | 1 | #18 | – | 2000 | |
| 20 | Wang Dang Doodle | 1 | #18 | – | 1993 | |
| 21 | Black Hearted Love | 1 | #36 | – | 2009 | |
| 22 | Whore's Hustle, Hustler's Whore | 1 | #24 | – | 2000 | |
| 23 | Highway 61 Revisited | 1 | #518 | – | – | |
| 24 | Naked Cousin | 1 | #32 | – | 1993 | |
| 25 | 50 | 2 | #901 | – | – | |
| 26 | This Is Love | 1 | #36 | – | 2001 | |
| 27 | Oh My Lover | 1 | #519 | – | – | |
| 28 | Prayer at the Gate | 1 | #147 | – | 2023 | |
| 29 | We Float | 1 | #582 | – | – | |
| 30 | Is This Desire? | 1 | #50 | – | 1998 | |
| 31 | Long Snake Moan | 1 | #878 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about PJ Harvey.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.