"Pretty Noose" is a song by the American rock band Soundgarden. Written by the band's frontman, Chris Cornell, "Pretty Noose" was released in March 1996 as the first single from the band's fifth studio album, Down on the Upside (1996). The song reached number two on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song was included on Soundgarden's 1997 greatest hits album, A-Sides.

"Pretty Noose" was written by frontman Chris Cornell. Drummer Matt Cameron said of the song,

That song for me was kind of interesting, because we were at the phase where we were just going to demo tunes. So I learned the tune and recorded it, and we ended up using that take. When we recorded that, I had walked to the studio (in Seattle) and my legs were really tired. But to make a long story short, I was trying to get a walking feel on the drum part. So it probably has a little weird shuffle to it probably from that walk that I took to the studio that day.

"Pretty Noose" has a distinctive opening wah-wah guitar riff. The song was written in C-G-C-G-G-E tuning, which the bass guitarist Ben Shepherd first introduced to the band with the song "Head Down" from Superunknown.

According to Cornell, "Pretty Noose" is about "an attractively packaged bad idea...something that seems great at first and then comes back to bite you."Frank Kozik, the director of the song's music video, interpreted the song as "your average bad-girlfriend experience," an interpretation which Cornell agreed with.

"Pretty Noose" appeared on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 Airplay chart, reaching the top 40. The song peaked at number four on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number two on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. It is notable for being the only song by the band to chart higher on the Modern Rock Tracks chart than on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. At the 1997 Grammy Awards, "Pretty Noose" received a nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance.Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called the song "updated, muscular prog rock."

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