The songwriter for Rihanna’s ‘SOS’ has shared the crazy way the lyrics for the pre-chorus were written almost 20 years ago.
‘SOS’ was RiRi’s first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, with 13 more number one tracks to follow in the years to come.
At the time in 2006, Rihanna was signed to Def Jam Recordings and was just trying to find her way in the music industry.
‘SOS’ was Rihanna’s first number one record (Universal)
But thanks to a dude named Evan Bogart, who was working as an assistant at a talent agency, her life changed forever.
The hip hop writer – who went on to discover Eminem and write for Beyoncé – wrote SOS a lot differently to a normal pop song.
In an interview with Daniel Wall, the Grammy award winner said: “If you really look at how that song is written, it’s not written by someone who knows anything about writing pop music.
“Because I had literally had no idea what I was doing, and I was just going off instinct and if you look at the the verses, they’re crafted with a lot of clever word play and internal rhyme schemes like a like a rapper would, right?”
This guy arguably made Rihanna’s career (YouTube/Daniel Wall)
But if you listen closely to the pre-chorus, it’s actually a mix-up of all old 80s songs.
“The whole second verse of that song is 80s song titles strung together as sentences because I thought it would be super clever,” he explained.
“‘Take On Me’ (by a-ha). You know inside you feel it right. Take me on. I could just die up in your arms tonight (by Cutting Crew). ‘I Melt With You’ (by Modern English). You got me head over heels. But boy, you keep me hanging on the way you make me feel (By Michael Jackson).
“They’re all number one songs from the 80s.”
He continued: “Well the crazy thing about that is, like, ‘SOS’ is the pre-chorus.
“So when I wrote the song, originally it was called ‘Rescue Me’ and the A and R guy who bought it said ‘no the song’s called ‘SOS’,’ I was like ‘oh okay cool’.
“‘SOS’ is the hookiest part of the song but it’s the pre-chorus.
“Years later, when I kind of learned how to write songs, I don’t think had I known the rules of writing, I would have written it that way.
“But that’s what’s kind of awesome and special about ‘SOS’ is it wasn’t written with any rules.
“And yet it was still catchy and still hooky and obviously, you know, playing off of ‘Tainted Love’ is a huge part of leaning into that, you know.”
Featured Image Credit: YouTube / Rihanna/ Tiktok / danielswall
