PJ Harvey Chart History

[menju56]

A thread for info on PJ Harvey's chart history.

Focused on UK and US charts, since that's what info I have to hand, but feel free to add in chart info from other countries.

A handy UK colour chart guide

DARK GREEN for Top 10
BLUE for Top 15
PURPLE for Top 20
PLUM for Top 40
DARK SLATE GREY for Top 75

UK CHARTS
ALBUMS





Dry (Mar 1992) - #11 - 5wks (SILVER)
Rid of Me (Apr 1993) - #3 - 4wks (SILVER)
4-Track Demos (Oct 1993) - #19 - 2wks
To Bring You My Love (Feb 1995) - #12 - 6wks (SILVER)
Dance Hall at Louse Point w/John Parish (Sep 1996) - #23 - 1wk
Is This Desire? (Sep 1998) - #17 - 2wks
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (Oct 2000) - #23 - 13wks (PLATINUM)
Uh Huh Her (May 2004) - #12 - 3wks (SILVER)
The Peel Sessions 1991-2004 (Oct 2006) - #121 unoffic./DID NOT CHART
White Chalk (Sep 2007) - #11 - 3wks (SILVER)
A Woman A Man Walked By w/John Parish (Mar 2009) - #23 - 2wks
Let England Shake (Feb 2011) - #8 - 19wks (GOLD)

SINGLES/EPs



Dress (Oct 1991) - #-- - DID NOT CHART
Sheela-Na-Gig (Feb 1992) - #69 - 1wk
50ft Queenie (Apr 1993) - #27 - 2wks
Man-Size (Jul 1993) - #42 - 2wks
Down By The Water (Feb 1995) - #38 - 2wks
C'mon Billy (Jul 1995) - #29 - 2wks
Send His Love To Me(Oct 1995) - #34 - 2wks
Henry Lee w/Nick Cave (Feb 1996) - #36 - 1wk
That Was My Veil w/John Parish (Nov 1996) - #75 - 1wk
Broken Homes [Tricky ft Polly Jean Harvey] (May 1998) - #25 - 2wks
A Perfect Day Elise (Sep 1998) - #25 - 2wks
The Wind (Jan 1999) - #29 - 2wks
Good Fortune (Nov 2000) - #41 - 2wks
A Place Called Home (Feb 2001) - #43 - 2wks
This Is Love (Oct 2001) - #41 - 1wk
The Letter (May 2004) - #28 - 2wks
You Come Through (Jul 2004) - #41 - 2wks
Shame (Sep 2004) - #45 - 1wk
When Under Ether (Sep 2007) - #-- - DID NOT CHART
The Piano (Nov 2007) - #-- - DID NOT CHART
The Devil (Mar 2008) - #-- - DID NOT CHART
Black Hearted Love w/John Parish (Mar 2009) - #-- - DID NOT CHART
The Words That Maketh Murder (Feb 2011) - #-- - DID NOT CHART
The Glorious Land (Apr 2011) - #-- - DID NOT CHART
_____

Colour chart for the US albums!

BLUE for Top 40
PLUM for Top 100
DARK SLATE GREY for Top 200

US CHARTS
ALBUMS/EPs

Rid of Me (May 1993) - #158 - 1wk
To Bring You My Love (Feb 1995) - #40 - 15wks
Dance Hall at Louse Point w/John Parish (Sep 1996) - #178 - 1wk
Is This Desire? (Sep 1998) - #54 - 4wks
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (Oct 2000) - #42 - 9wks
Uh Huh Her (May 2004) - #29 - 5wks
White Chalk (Sep 2007) - #65 - 3wks
A Woman A Man Walked By w/John Parish (Mar 2009) - #80 - 3wks
Let England Shake (Feb 2011) - #32 - 4wks

SINGLES [Billboard Modern Rock/Alternative Songs chart]
Sheela-Na-Gig (Sep 1992) - #9
Down By The Water (Mar 1995) - #2 - 14wks [also #48 on Top 100 Airplay]
A Perfect Day Elise (Oct 1998) - #33 - 3wks

______

Additional US chart/sales info

• To Bring You My Love had sold 378,000 copies in the US as of November 2007. It had sold 7,000 copies in the two years between Dec 2005 and Nov 2007.
• Total PJ Harvey US album sales were at 1.5 million as of November 2007.
• Dry had sold 176,000 copies in the US as of December 2005.
• Rid of Me had sold 207,000 copies in the US as of December 2005.
• 4-Track Demos had sold 119,000 copies in the US as of December 2005.
• Is This Desire? had sold 164,000 copies in the US as of December 2005.
• Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea had sold 285,000 copies in the US as of December 2005.
• Uh Huh Her had sold 135,000 copies in the US as of December 2005.

Additional UK chart/sales info

• Dance Hall at Louse Point had sold 19,919 copies in the UK as of April 2009.
• Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea had sold 272,403 copies in the UK as of September 2011.
• Let England Shake had sold 121,122 copies in the UK as of January 2012.
• First-week sales of Uh Huh Her were 20,572.
• First-week sales of White Chalk were 13,986.
• First-week sales of A Woman A Man Walked By were 8,157.
• First-week sales of Let England Shake were 22,468.

[Octopussy]

So none of her singles from the last few years even charted? What the hell? I never understand how they calculate these things.

[menju56]

The UK charts are simple - it's 100% based on sales. In the US there are that many different Billboard charts that it does get complicated.

In the UK, her lack of charting singles post-2004 coincided with the move away from putting out two-part CD singles and instead doing a download and (limited?) 7" vinyl.

[Octopussy]

^ Do the UK charts include downloads in their figures??

[menju56]

They do. It just seems that the last few singles haven't sold enough to make the Top 75; a lot of her previous singles had two CDs and a vinyl to count towards its position whereas the number of formats for the White Chalk/AWAMWB/LES singles was reduced. Her album sales are still healthy, LES has done very well especially in the context of her other albums too.

[Octopussy]

I'm surprised that The Words That Maketh Murder didn't chart at all. Surely it racked up a lot of Itunes purchases, but I guess not enough. I remember it leaked pretty early but it looks like it was only officially released one week before the album.

[El_Natos]

Am I the only one surprised that TBYML and ROM have just a silver certification?!

[grapefruit_is_winning]

To Bring You My Love is especially surprising. Down By The Water was a constant on MTV and radio in an era where alternative artists were selling boat loads of records.

[El_Natos]

TBYML achieved gold certification in July 2013!

[DialF]

Here's her Australian chart history. I had to ask the national chart compiler, ARIA, for the below #100 peaks. 'Dress', 'Sheela Na-Gig' and 'Man Size' may have also charted (all were released as physical singles here, I recently discovered - all missed the top 100), but I haven't asked about those yet. All of this I've added to her wikipedia discography page. Prior to the inclusion of streaming a couple of years ago, our chart was 100% sales-based.

Singles:

50 Ft Queenie #179
Down By the Water #84
C'mon Billy #128
Send His Love To Me #125
Henry Lee #73
That Was My Veil - did not chart
Broken Homes #89
A Perfect Day Elise #83
Good Fortune #71

'Good Fortune' was her last commercially-released CD single, as far as I know. Downloads weren't included into the chart here until 2006-ish, and required a physical counterpart to be chart eligible for a year or so after that. I don't know whether any download-only singles of hers charted here.


Albums:

Dry #156
Rid of Me #110
4-Track Demos #189
To Bring You My Love #38
Dance Hall At Louse Point #126
Is This Desire? #30
Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea #20
Uh Huh Her #14
White Chalk #24
A Woman A Man Walked By #25
Let England Shake #6
The Hope Six Demolition Project #7

[DialF]

Here's a couple of UK chart peaks outside the top 75 that were missed (yes, I am [was] a chart freak and know/care about this stuff):

THE PEEL SESSIONS 1991–2004 (Island)
2006 (4.11.2006): 121 (-/1)

When Under Ether (Island)
2007 (29.09.2007): 101 (-/1)

That's one week in the top 200 for each.

Sourced from http://www.zobbel.de/cluk/CLUK_H.HTM .