Song · PJ Harvey
“Sheela Na Gig” by PJ Harvey
From the album Dry (1992)
“Sheela Na Gig” by PJ Harvey appears on 12 radio countdowns from 10 stations between 1992 and 2023. It was first released in 1992 on the album Dry. Its best result is #2 on the John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1992. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #43 alternative song of 1992 and #4,317 alternative song of all time.
Watch
Video from YouTube (PJ Harvey - Topic). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Sheela-Na-Gig" was the second single from Dry, PJ Harvey's 1992 debut on Too Pure, and it lands like a slap. Harvey wrote it back in April 1990 and named it after the sheela na gig, the old carvings of naked women brazenly displaying themselves that turn up across Britain and Ireland, a title every bit as blunt as the music.
The album version was cut at the Icehouse studio in Yeovil, with Head engineering and producing alongside Rob Ellis and Harvey, and it's all wiry lurch and howl, raw enough to make the rest of the rock pack sound polite. It was the only single from Dry to chart in both Britain and America, reaching number nine on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks, and Maria Mochnacz directed the video.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 67 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1992 | 107 |
| 1992 | 80 | Live 105 San Francisco, CA | Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1992 | 105 |
| 1992 | 67 | Q101 Chicago, IL | Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1992 | 101 |
| 1992 | 52 | WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD | WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1992 | 100 |
| 1992 | 2 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1992 | 50 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 402 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1995) | 500 |
| 1999 | 417 | 107.7 The End | The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1077 |
| 2000 | 49 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (2000) | 50 |
| 2002 | 1936 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2022 | 478 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 900 Songs of the '90s | 900 |
| 2022 | 411 | KEXP | KEXP Top Songs of the Last 50 Years (1972-2022) | 491 |
| 2023 | 289 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s | 893 |
Also listed as: Sheela-Na-Gig; Shee-La-Na-Gig.
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about "Sheela Na Gig" by PJ Harvey.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.