Song · PJ Harvey
“A Perfect Day Elise” by PJ Harvey
From the album Is This Desire? (1998)
“A Perfect Day Elise” by PJ Harvey appears on 13 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 1998 and 2025. It was first released in 1998 on the album Is This Desire?. Its best result is #68 on The End Top 107 Songs of 1998. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #195 alternative song of 1998 and #4,110 alternative song of all time.
Watch
Video from YouTube (PJHarveyVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"A Perfect Day Elise" led the charge for Is This Desire?, PJ Harvey's fourth album, arriving on Island in September 1998, and like much of that record it's a character sketch built around a woman, this one named Elise. Harvey wrote it alone and co-produced it with Flood and Head, with Steve Osborne adding extra production and sharing the mix with Andy Todd.
The vocal is the hook: her voice sounds shut in, as if sung from inside a box, and it's doubled an octave apart, a detail the authors Lori Burns and Melisse Lafrance picked out in their book Disruptive Divas. It became her best-charting single in Britain, reaching 25, and made 33 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks, and her longtime collaborator Maria Mochnacz directed the video.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 97 | Live 105 San Francisco, CA | Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1998 | 106 |
| 1998 | 97 | WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD | WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1998 | 100 |
| 1998 | 68 | 107.7 The End Seattle, WA | The End Top 107 Songs of 1998 | 107 |
| 1998 | 78 | The Buzz Burlington, VT / Plattsburgh, NY / Montreal, QC | The Buzz Top 99 Songs of 1998 | 100 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 397 | 107.7 The End | The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1077 |
| 1999 | 1921 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 2000 |
| 2000 | 1924 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) | 2001 |
| 2001 | 1924 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 2002 |
| 2002 | 1909 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) | 2003 |
| 2003 | 1867 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003) | 2004 |
| 2004 | 1868 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) | 2005 |
| 2005 | 1855 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) | 1994 |
| 2025 | 710 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs | 800 |
Also listed as: A Perfect Day, Elise.
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