"Can't Get You Out Of My Head" by Kylie Minogue // Song Review

- November 24, 2025

Released as the lead single for her eight studio album, Fever, Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" signaled a massive shift in pop music. The song's dance pop elements threaded with an ultra-modern approach to disco in a way that felt effortlessly cool and simple, yet still sleek and refined. It revived the dance pop genre for a new generation of listeners, proving how powerful minimalism and mood could be in shaping the sound of the new century. It remains a true cornerstone of early‑2000's pop perfection.

The track was written and produced by Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis. Cathy is responsible for co-writing some of the most timeless pop songs ever made, including "Toxic" by Britney Spears and "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry. Rob would go on to collaborate with Kylie throughout much of Fever and beyond, as well as with artists like Sophie Ellis‑Bextor and others who helped define the era's sound. "It was a very fluid and natural process," Cathy said in a 2011 interview with M Magazine, explaining that they had two days in the studio and ended up creating the song in about three and a half hours on the second day together. "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."

Originally, the pair wrote the song with the group S Club 7 in mind, who ultimately passed on recording it. It was then offered to Sophie Ellis‑Bextor, who also turned it down. When Kylie heard the demo, she knew within seconds that it was meant for her. Cathy later said, "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..."

Kylie herself echoed that same sentiment. In an interview featured on the KylieFever2002 DVD, she said: "'Can't Get You Out of My Head' was perfection...Before I'd even heard it through to the end of the song. It was perfect for me and for what I was looking for at that time. It was simple, it was cool and it was pop."

The single became the second highest‑selling song of 2001 and was ranked among the best of the decade by numerous publications. It went on to become the biggest hit of her career, topping the charts in 40 countries, including the UK and her home country of Australia, and giving her her first U.S. Top 10 in 13 years. Its impact can still be heard across the past 25 years of pop, making space for artists like Dua Lipa, for example, to create the sleek, disco‑infused music she excels at.

Part of the song's brilliance lies in its simplicity. It is hypnotic, minimalistic, and largely breaks all of the rules of a traditional songwriting structure. The iconic "la la la" hook became the defining moment of the song, despite it's simplicity. Cathy explained in M Magazine the process of writing the song, "We had the 'can't get you out of my head' bit and we had the bridge, but it needed another hook and that was the 'la‑la's'. We knew it didn't need another lyric, so I just went 'la, la, la...'" She added, "None of the sections in the song conform to the typical verse‑chorus structure. They're misplaced sections that somehow work together, and that's because we 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."

Rob added in the same interview that, "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."

The song is wrapped in melodic electro‑synth pop elements, with the song's central refrain being, "I just can't get you out of my head, boy, your loving is all I think about". That mantra is one of the few lyrics that gets repeated throughout and perfectly embodies this obsessive, all-encompassing love and infatuation that this song radiates.