Can't Get You Out of My Head


"Can't Get You Out of My Head" is a song recorded by Australian singer Kylie Minogue for her eighth studio album, Fever. It was released through Parlophone as the lead single from the album on 8 September 2001. Jointly written, composed, and produced by Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis, "Can't Get You Out of My Head" is a midtempo dance, dance-pop, techno-pop and nu-disco song. Lyrically, it discusses Minogue's obsession with her love interest and is notable for its "la la la" hook.
Commercially, it peaked at number one on the singles charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, and Switzerland. It also topped the UK Singles Chart and became her first single to sell over a million copies in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the song peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became Minogue's biggest hit in the country since "The Loco-Motion". As of 2013, the song was Minogue's highest-selling single, with worldwide sales of over five million.
The music video for "Can't Get You Out of My Head" was directed by Dawn Shadforth and features Minogue performing various dance routines before different futuristic backdrops. It became notable for the revealing hooded white jumpsuit she wore during one scene. Following its release, the song has been performed by Minogue on all her concert tours, except the Anti Tour. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" ranked on several decade-end lists compiled by magazines such as Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and NME. It is also recognised as Minogue's signature song and a defining point in her musical career. In 2012, the song was re-recorded for inclusion on her orchestral compilation album, The Abbey Road Sessions.

Writing and release

"Can't Get You Out of My Head" was written, composed, and produced jointly by Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis. In 2000, Dennis and Davis had been brought together by British artist manager Simon Fuller, who wanted them to come up with a song for British pop group S Club 7. The song was recorded using Cubase music software, which Davis ran on his Mac computer. Davis began playing an acoustic guitar and ran a 125 beats per minute drum loop, on which Dennis began singing the line "I just can't get you out of my head" in the key of D minor. After three and a half hours, the demo was recorded; the vocals were laid down afterward. Dennis called their recording setup for the song "the most primitive set-up you could imagine! Different producers work in different ways. But it's good to be reminded you don't have to be reliant on equipment. A song is about melody and lyrics and being able to take something away in your memory that is going to haunt you." She though their production was a "very natural and fluid process", saying: "We know how hard we work sometimes to write songs and then spend months picking them to pieces, but this was the easiest process, the chemicals were all happy and working together."
After Fuller heard the demo, he felt it was not suited for S Club7 and rejected it. English singer-songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor also turned down an offer to record it. Davis then met with Kylie Minogue's A&R executive, Jamie Nelson. After hearing the demo cassette of the song, Nelson booked it for Minogue to record later that year. Nelson was impressed by the song's "vibe" and felt it would please the "danceheads". Although Davis was initially under the impression that the recording deal would be called off later, Minogue was enthusiastic to record the song after hearing 20 seconds of the demo. The whole song, including Minogue's vocals, was recorded at Davis's home studio in Surrey. The music, excluding the guitar part, was programmed using a Korg Triton workstation via MIDI. Dennis later remarked: "Even though Kylie wasn't the first artist to be offered the song, I don't believe it was meant to go to anyone other than Kylie, and I don't believe anyone else would have done the incredible job she did with it, with the video, looking super-hot!"
In 2001, Minogue embarked on the On a Night Like This tour to promote her seventh studio album, Light Years. She premiered "Can't Get You Out of My Head" performing it during the tour, and soon after, discussion regarding the song "quickly set online messageboards alight". "Can't Get You Out of My Head" was chosen as the lead single from Minogue's eighth studio album, Fever, and it was released on 8 September 2001 by Parlophone in Australia, while in the United Kingdom and other European countries it was released on 17 September.

Composition

"Can't Get You Out of My Head" is a midtempo dance dance-pop, techno-pop and neo-disco song with a tempo of 126 beats per minute. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by EMI Music Publishing, Minogue's vocal range spans from C4 to D5. The song does not follow the common verse-chorus structure but is composed instead with numerous "misplaced sections". Dennis reasoned that these sections "somehow work together" as she and Davis "didn't try to force any structure after the event. The seeds were watered and they very quickly sprouted into something bigger than any of us."
According to Davis, "It breaks a few rules as it starts with a chorus and in comes the 'la's'that is what confused my publisher when he first heard it." Minogue chants a "la la la" hook in the song, which is often heralded as its most appealing part. BBC Radio 2 noted that the song's composition is "deceptively simple, but its veins run with the whole history of electronic music". They described the song's bassline as "pulsing", and recognised influences of English rock band New Order and German electronic music band Kraftwerk.
Through the song's lyrics, Minogue expresses an obsession with an anonymous figure. Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian termed the song a "mystery" as Minogue never reveals the identity of the object of her infatuation. The critic suggested that the person Minogue is referring to is either "a partner, an evasive one-night stand or someone who doesn't know she exists". Writing for the same newspaper, Everett True identified a "darker element" in the simple lyrics and felt this sentiment was echoed in Minogue's restrained vocals. Further, True emphasised that while Minogue's 1987 single "I Should Be So Lucky" had presented an optimistic romantic future, "Can't Get You Out of My Head" focuses on an "unhealthy" and potentially destructive obsession. He also noted that in the former song, Minogue played "the wide-eyed ingénue with alacrity", but in the latter song she is aware of the harmful nature of her infatuation, calling it a "desire that is wholly dependent on her own self-control".
In 2012, Minogue re-recorded "Can't Get You Out of My Head" for inclusion on her orchestral compilation album, The Abbey Road Sessions. On the album, Minogue reworked 16 of her earlier songs backed by an orchestra, which, according to Nick Levine of BBC Music, "re-imagine them without the disco glitz and vocal effects". The Abbey Road Sessions version of "Can't Get You Out of My Head" features a "more dramatic, fully fleshed out" musical arrangement, using a pizzicato playing technique, where the strings of a string instrument are plucked continuously. Tania Zeine of ARIA Charts described the track as a "powerful violin ballad with the accompaniment of a large orchestra throughout the remainder".

Critical reception

Chris True of AllMusic picked the song as a highlight of Fever, commenting that it "pulses and grooves like no other she's recorded". PopMatters' Jason Thompson described Minogue's vocals as a "sexual come on" and called the song "trim and funky, certainly something that couldn't miss anywhere". Dominique Leone of Pitchfork felt the song launched Minogue back into relevance in the U.S. saying it "exudes a catchiness that belies its inherent simplicity, so reassuring during an era when chart acts sound increasingly baroque and producers race to see who can ape electronic music trends first". Entertainment Weeklys Jim Farber said the song "fully lives up to its title" with "every sound a hook", and compared it to the works of Andrea True.
In 2012, The Guardian critic Everett True defined "Can't Get You Out of My Head" as "one of those rare moments in pop: sleek and chic and stylish and damnably danceable, but with a darker element hidden in plain sight". Billboards Jason Lipshutz felt that "the metallic production wouldn't carry quite as much of its impact if Minogue had attempted to outshine it; wisely, her voice operates alongside it, finding renewed power in its drive", concluding that "almost 15 years after its release, it still sounds fresh, forward-thinking and alive". Writing for the Herald Sun, Cameron Adams placed it at the top position of his list of the singer's best songs, in honour of her 50th birthday; "if you could program a computer to formulate the perfect pop song, it would sound like this 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' sounds like a happy accident, not a pop song forced out by a phalanx of writers". Olive Pometsey of GQ deemed it "the sound of the noughties", highlighting its "sultry synth sound that runs through so many of her other bangers for a moment of pure pop perfection. After listening to it once, you won't be able to get it out of your head."
The Abbey Road Sessions version of the song received generally positive reviews. Tim Sendra of AllMusic felt that "most interesting reboot" in the album took place on "Can't Get You Out of My Head", saying that the "insistent strings push the song along with tightly coiled electricity that is impossible to resist". He also picked the song as a highlight on the album. Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine chose the song as one of the "standouts" on the album, saying that its arrangement "compensate for the lack of synthetic dance beats and vocal effects". The Independents Simon Price wrote that while the original version of "Can't Get You Out of My Head" would be "impossible to improve on", the reworked version "turns it into a pizzicato thriller score". On the contrary, Jude Rogers of The Quietus wrote that the song does not "respond well to this treatment".

Commercial performance

Europe

In both the Flanders and Wallonia regions of Belgium, the song peaked at number one on the Ultratop chart and spent a total of 22 and 24 weeks on the charts, respectively. In Belgium, the song was certified gold for sales of 25,000 units. The song entered the French Singles Chart at number 14 and peaked at number one and spent a total of 41 weeks on the chart. It was certified platinum by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique for sales of 500,000 units. As of August 2014, the song was the 22nd best-selling single of the 21st century in France, with 542,000 units sold. The song was number one for a week on the German Singles Chart. It was certified platinum by Germany's Bundesverband Musikindustrie for shipments of 500,000 units. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" peaked at number one on the Irish Singles Chart and charted for 17 weeks.
In the United Kingdom, the single faced competition in a hugely hyped chart battle with Victoria Beckham's single "Not Such an Innocent Girl". On the 29 September 2001 UK Singles Chart, "Can't Get You Out of My Head" debuted at number one with first week sales of 306,000 units, while "Not Such an Innocent Girl" debuted at number six with first week sales of 35,000 units. It spent four weeks at number one and remained for 25 weeks in the UK's Top 40. The song spent a record-breaking eight weeks at number one on the UK's airplay chart and became the first to garner 3000 radio plays in a single week. Subsequently, it became the most-played song of 2001 there. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" was certified double-platinum by the British Phonographic Industry in 2015, and had sold over 1.3 million copies as of 2016.

Oceania and United States

In Australia, "Can't Get You Out of My Head" entered the 23 September 2001 singles chart at number one, and remained there for four weeks. It spent a total of 12 weeks on the chart. It was certified triple-platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association for shipments of 210,000 units. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" debuted at number 33 on the 7 October 2001 issue of New Zealand Singles Chart. It reached number one in its fourth week and was certified gold by Recorded Music NZ.
In the United States, "Can't Get You Out of My Head" debuted at number 64 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart of 26 January 2002. It peaked at number seven on the 23 March 2002 chart, and became Minogue's best-selling single in the country since "The Loco-Motion". The song also topped the Hot Dance Club Songs chart, and peaked at number 23 on the Adult Top 40 chart, at number three on the Mainstream Top 40 chart, and at number eight on the Hot 100 Airplay chart. The song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of 500,000 units. The single was the first of eight of her songs to chart on the Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay, peaking at number 32 in September 2003.

Music video

Development and synopsis

The music video for "Can't Get You Out of My Head" was directed by Dawn Shadforth, and features dance routines choreographed by Michael Rooney. Early in Minogue's career, her youthful look, slim figure, and her "proportionally" large mouth attracted comments from various critics, with British red top newspaper News of the World speculating that the singer could be an alien. Later whilst discussing the video, Shadforth and music critic Paul Morley took the "bizarre suggestion" into consideration to comment on Minogue as a "creative, experimental artist".
The video begins with Minogue driving a De Tomaso Mangusta sports car while singing the song. The next scene consists of a number of couples dressed in black and white costumes performing a dance routine; they are soon joined by Minogue. She has wavy light brown hair and is seen wearing a white tracksuit. The setting changes to a room where Minogue, with straight light brown hair and sporting bright crimson lipstick, is seen striking various poses in a hooded white jumpsuit with a neckline plunging down to her navel. The outfit was designed by London-based fashion designer Fee Doran, under the label of Mrs Jones. Minogue then performs a synchronised dance routine with several backup dancers, who are wearing red and black suits. As the video ends, she is shown with curly light brown hair, wearing a lavender halter neck dress with ribbon tile trim, performing a similar routine on top of a building at night. Various scenes in the video show Minogue's face "unusually" close to the lens of the camera, thus it "subtly distorts, yet remains glamorous". Shadforth felt the shot gave a "sort of sense of intimacy" and "strangeness", again drawing upon the suggestion of Minogue being an alien. Similarly, Morley opined that it was "the side of Kylie that suddenly reveals itself as being experimental, she is prepared to push herself into positions and shapes that might not be conventionally attractive She becomes alien Kylie as well".

Legacy

At the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards ceremony, the music video was nominated for Best Dance Video, while Michael Rooney won the award for Best Choreography. The hooded white jumpsuit Minogue wore in the music video is often considered to be one of her most iconic looks, particularly because of its deep plunging neckline. British fashion designer and Minogue's stylist William Baker described the choice of the outfit, saying it was "it was pure but kind of slutty at the same time. The outfit was put on display at Kylie: The Exhibition, an exhibition that featured "costumes and memorabilia collected over Kylie's career", held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, and at the similar Kylie: an exhibition, held at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia. It was also included in Minogue's official fashion photography book, Kylie / Fashion, released on 19 November 2012 by Thames and Hudson to celebrate her.
The music video served as an inspiration for Morley while writing his book Words and Music: The History of Pop in the Shape of a City. In it, Morley "turned the lonely drive she made in the song's video towards a city into a fictional history of music", referring to the music video's opening sequence. The critic takes a ride with Minogue through a city and encounters various musicians and artists like the ghost of Elvis Presley, and Madonna, Kraftwerk, and Wittgenstein. Diane Railton and Paul Weston, in their 2005 essay "Naughty Girls and Red Blooded Women ", contrasted the music video of "Can't Get You Out of My Head" with that of American singer Beyoncé's 2003 single "Baby Boy". They concluded that while both videos focus on two singers performing seductive dance routines, Minogue is presented in a calculated manner and "is always provisional, restricted, and contingent", whereas Beyoncé displays a particular "primitive, feral, uncontrolled and uncontrollable" sexuality embodied by the black female body. The two felt the videos were representative of the raced depictions of white and black women in colonial times and pop culture, respectively.

Live performances

On 2 September 2001, Minogue performed "Can't Get You Out of My Head" at the BBC Radio 1 One Big Sunday show held at Leicester, in the United Kingdom, along with "Spinning Around" for this performance, she wore a black trilby hat, a sleeveless T-shirt upon which a picture of Marilyn Monroe had been printed, knee-length black boots, and trousers with open zips on both the thighs. She performed "Can't Get You Out of My Head" on 8 November 2001 at the MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony in 2001. At the 2002 Brit Awards held on 20 February 2002, Minogue sang a mash-up version of "Can't Get You Out of My Head" and British band New Order's 1983 song "Blue Monday" conceived and produced by Stuart Crichton. The mash-up was soon released as the B-side to "Love at First Sight", the third single from the album Fever. The live performance of the mash-up ranked at number 40 on The Guardian's 2011 list of 50 Key Events in the History of Dance Music. The mashup was dubbed "Can't Get Blue Monday Out of My Head" as the B-side of "Love at First Sight" and as a remix on Minogue's remix album Boombox. On 16 March 2002, Minogue performed "Can't Get You Out of My Head" along with "In Your Eyes", the second single from Fever, on Saturday Night Live.
Since its release, "Can't Get You Out of My Head" has been performed by Minogue on all her concert tours as of 2019, except for the Anti Tour in 2012. In 2001, the song was included on the setlist of Minogue's On a Night Like This tour, which was launched to promote Light Years. According to Tim DiGravina of AllMusic, the performance was infused with an "almost tangible passion and fire". The song was included in the encore segment of the KylieFever2002 tour, which was launched to promote Fever. In 2003, Minogue performed "Can't Get You Out of My Head" on the one-night-only concert Money Can't Buy, which promoted her ninth studio album, Body Language, and was held at the Hammersmith Apollo in London.
In 2005, she performed the song on her. In 2008, she sang "Can't Get You Out of My Head" on the KylieX2008 tour. In 2009, she performed the same version of the song on the For You, for Me tour, which was her first concert tour in North America. A more rock-oriented version of the song was performed during the. It was regarded as "seemingly inspired by the crunch of Janet Jackson's "Black Cat". In 2012, Minogue promoted The Abbey Road Sessions by performing on the BBC Proms in the Park at Hyde Park, London. During the event, she also sang the orchestral version of "Can't Get You Out of My Head". The Steve Anderson remix was performed on Minogue's Kiss Me Once Tour and Kylie Summer 2015 Tour. She also sang this version during the 2015 Royal Albert Hall performance as part of her "Kylie Christmas" concert. An acoustic guitar-driven version of the song, sampling Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain", was performed on the Golden Tour.

Legacy

Commercial impact

Following its release, "Can't Get You Out of My Head" peaked at number one in Australia and New Zealand and on the charts of every European country except Finland. The song reportedly reached number one in 40 countries worldwide, and as of 2013, it has sold over five million copies. In the United Kingdom, it is the 75th best-selling single of all time and the 28th best-selling single of the millennium. The song is notable for being Minogue's biggest and strongest commercial breakthrough in the United States, a region where she had previously achieved little success. The commercial success of "Can't Get You Out of My Head" in the US is often considered having driven its parent album Fever to similar success there. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 chart, and received a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of one million units. It is Minogue's highest selling single as of 2013.

Cultural impact

In 2003, Q Magazine ranked "Can't Get You Out of My Head" at number 694 in their list of the 1001 Best Songs Ever. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it at number 45 on their 100 Best Songs of the 2000s list, noting that Minogue had "seduced the U.S. with this mirror-ball classic" and that "we've been hearing it at the gym ever since". NME ranked the song at number 74 on their 100 Best Track of the Noughties list, saying it "encapsulated everything enviable in a well-crafted song" and heralding it as Minogue's best single. In 2012, Priya Elan of NME ranked the song at number four on her The Greatest Pop Songs in History list, saying: "It was unlike any song I remember hearing before." In 2012, The Guardian included the song on their list of The Best Number One Records, labelling it "sleek, Arctic-blue minimalism, like an emotionally thwarted retelling of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love". In the same year, PRS for Music, a UK copyright collection society and performance rights organisation which collects royalties on behalf of songwriters and composers, named "Can't Get You Out of My Head" the Most Popular Song of the Decade as it received the greatest airplay and live covers in the 2000s.
Lee Barron, in his essay The Seven Ages of Kylie Minogue: Postmodernism, Identity, and Performative Mimicry, noted that the song "further established Minogue's cultural and commercial relevance in the new millennium". He remarked that the song "with its hypnotic 'la la la' refrain and the deceptively uncomplicated, catchily repetitive beats and synth-sound, marked yet another clearly defined image transformation from the camp-infused Light Years to an emphasis upon a cool, machine-like sexuality, a trait clearly identifiable within the promotional video for 'Can't Get You Out of My Head'". Similarly, Everett True of The Guardian wrote that the song continued the "change in the marketing and public perception of Kylie" and her transition from the "homely girl-next-door" to "a much more flirtatious, sophisticated persona" that started with the release of "Spinning Around" in 2000. True felt that the success of "Can't Get You Out of My Head" was one of the motivating factors behind "manufactured" pop music gaining "new postmodern respectability" and marked a "clear shift in attitude towards pop music among the 'serious' rock critic fraternity: the idea that pop music might well be the equal of rock music after all, that each has their high points and their low". Various publications recognise "Can't Get You Out of My Head" as Minogue's signature song.
"Can't Get You Out of My Head" garnered Minogue a number of awards. At the 2001 Top of the Pops Awards ceremony, the song won the award for Best Single. At the 2002 ARIA Music Awards ceremony, "Can't Get You Out of My Head" won the awards for Single of the Year and Highest Selling Single, and Minogue won the Outstanding Achievement Award. In 2002, it won a Dutch Edison Award for Single of the Year. At the inaugural Premios Oye! in 2002, the song received a nomination in the Song of the Year category.

Track listings

  1. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 3:50
  2. "Boy" — 3:47
  1. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 3:50
  2. "Boy" — 3:47
  3. "Rendezvous at Sunset" — 3:23
  4. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 3:47
  1. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 3:50
  2. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 6:34
  3. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 9:26
  1. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 3:50
  2. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 6:34
  3. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 9:26
  4. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 8:32
  1. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 6:34
  2. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 5:59
  3. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 8:32
  1. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 3:50
  2. "Can't Get Blue Monday Out of My Head" — 4:01
  1. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 3:50
  2. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 9:26
  3. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 6:53
  4. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 7:00
  1. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 5:57
  2. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 5:57
  1. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 6:53
  2. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 6:52
  3. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 9:26
  4. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 8:35
  5. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 6:35
  1. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 3:48
  2. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 6:33
  3. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 5:58
  4. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 8:31
  1. "Can't Get Blue Monday Out of My Head" — 4:54
  2. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 6:00
  3. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 5:59
  4. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 6:00
  5. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 5:01
  6. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 10:25
  7. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 7:05
  8. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 8:34
  9. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" — 1:58

    Charts

Weekly charts

Chart Peak
position

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Australia 3
Australia Club Chart 27
Australia Dance Chart 1
Austria 1
Belgium 8
Belgium 7
Europe 2
France 8
Germany 4
Ireland 7
Netherlands 5
Netherlands 2
New Zealand 45
Romania 1
Sweden 4
Switzerland 1
UK Singles 3

Decade-end charts

CountryPosition
Australia58
Germany67
Netherlands15
United Kingdom7

Certifications