Kylie Minogue released “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”

Can’t Get You Out of My Head Kylie Minogue

Writer(s): Cathy Dennis/Rob Davis (see lyrics here) Released: September 8, 2001 First Charted: September 17, 2001 Peak: 7 US, 3 RR, 23 A40, 14 UK, 14 AU, 12 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 0.53 US, 1.53 UK, 5.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.3 radio, 338.31 video, 319.77 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “There is no false advertising here.” AB’00 “Never has a pop song more effectively done what it says” TL With its “catchy hooks, a salaciously cool video and lyrical content” NME this “irresistibly fun, flirty dance-pop confection” MX “can be very very difficult to get out of your head.” AB’00 “The Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis-penned single sinks its playground chant of a hook into the brain and just refuses to let go as Kylie sexes it up.” TL Before penning this song, Dennis had a couple top 10 hits in the U.S. in the early ‘90s. This one was offered first to Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who turned it down. SF The song is also known as “The La La Song” because Kylie sings “la la la, la la la la la la” repeatedly in the chorus. SF That “hook wormed its way into several billion ears worldwide” PD as the song topped the charts in over 40 countries. It was her 20th top ten hit in the UK, where it was also the most played song of 2001 and her best-selling single. SF While Kylie had been a successful actress and sex symbol in her native Australia and musically was huge around the world, she hadn’t graced the American charts since her 1988 debut. However, “the pint-size Aussie disco dolly seduced the U.S. with this mirror-ball classic.” RS’09 So “how did Kylie make one of the decade’s finest dance-pop anthems” PF and what PopEater.com called “one of the greatest dance-pop cuts of all time”? PE “By offering less: less singing, less melody, less feeling. What’s left is a buzzy, insatiable desire, an itch you can’t scratch but maybe can dance out.” PF She knows “intuitively how each coy purr, each insouciant whisper can speak to and for the lust of her audience.” PF “If its sleek, synthetic surfaces feel hollow, it’s because fantasy is hollow, a shell for impossible expectation.” PF Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Kylie Minogue AB’00 About.com (2009). “Top 100 Pop Songs of the 2000s” MX Atlanta Metromix (11/24/2009). “Best Songs of the Decade” NME NME.com (11/11/09). 100 Tracks of the Decade PF “The Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s” PD PopDose.com (11/24/2009). The Best Songs of the Decade” PE PopEater.com (11/24/09). “Best Pop Songs of the Decade” RS’09 Rolling Stone (12/9/2009). Songs of the Decade” SF Songfacts.com TL Telegraph.co.uk (9/18/2009). “100 Songs That Defined the Noughties” First posted 10/24/2020; last updated 10/17/2022.