Song · The Northern Pikes
“She Ain't Pretty” by The Northern Pikes
From the album Snow in June (1990)
“She Ain't Pretty” by The Northern Pikes appears on 3 radio countdowns from 1 station between 1990 and 1999. It was first released in 1990 on the album Snow in June. Its best result is #39 on the CFNY Top 90 Songs of 1990. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #135 alternative song of 1990 and #3,933 alternative song of all time.
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"She Ain't Pretty" kicked off Snow in June, the Northern Pikes' 1990 album, as its lead single, and it's still the song that follows the Canadian band wherever they go. Bryan Potvin wrote it about a guy who falls hard for a stunner and then finds out that underneath the looks she's a nightmare, and he got the idea from an episode of Rhoda, where a character shrugs off her own beauty as something she merely appears to have.
It's a sour little joke smuggled inside a radio-ready hook, and Canadian radio swallowed it whole: that year it was the sixth-most-played Canadian-content song in the country.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 39 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge Toronto, ON | CFNY Top 90 Songs of 1990 | 90 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 471 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (1991 Edition) | 1002 |
| 1999 | 392 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999) | 1002 |
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