Song · PJ Harvey
“Dress” by PJ Harvey
From the album Dry (1992)
“Dress” by PJ Harvey appears on 1 radio countdown from 1 station in 1991. It was first released in 1992 on the album Dry. Its best result is #2 on the John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1991 (the 'Phantom Fifty'). In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #69 alternative song of 1991.
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"Dress" was PJ Harvey's first single, out on Too Pure in 1991 ahead of her debut album Dry, and it's a hell of a way to introduce yourself. Cut at The Icehouse in Yeovil during the Dry sessions, it was produced by Harvey with Rob Ellis, Head and Mark Vernon, with Head engineering and the low end split between Ian Olliver's electric bass and Ben Groenevelt's double bass.
The song follows a woman squeezing into a dress to catch a man's eye: it's awkward to walk in, she hopes it'll work some magic anyway, and when he shrugs it off she ends up flat on the floor, mortified. Critics went wild for it even though it never charted, and it got not one but two promotional videos.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 2 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1991 (the 'Phantom Fifty') | 50 |
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