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SOS (Rihanna song)

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"SOS" (also known as "SOS (Rescue Me)") is a pop-dance song written by Evan Kidd Bogart, and Jonathan Rotem for Rihanna's sophomore studio album A Girl Like Me (2006). The song samples the main synth hook from Soft Cell's cover of Ed Cobb's "Tainted Love". It was released in 2006 as the album's first single. "SOS" became Rihanna's first number-one in the United States, and it topped many of the corresponding Billboard charts. It also reached the top five in Canada and the United Kingdom, where it received widespread airplay.

"SOS"
Song

Song information

The song was primarily written by producer Jonathan "J.R." Rotem and Etvan Kidd Bogart. Label mate Christina Milian was originally asked to record the song for her third album but the singer turned it down and Island Def Jam CEO L.A. Reid offered "SOS" to Rihanna instead. [1]

"SOS" features a sample of the classic 1981 tune "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell, a cover of the song by Gloria Jones, written by Ed Cobb, who receives co-songwriting credit. Some of the lines are taken from or inspired by the original song, including "I toss and turn, I can't sleep at night". One interesting aspect of the song is that Island Def Jam Records allows free listening of the song on demand via their Web site.

The song's theme is based around Rihanna crying out for help as she becomes besotted with a boy mentioned in the song. Rihanna is not used to feeling this way and feels she is behaving out of character.

Music video

The song has two music videos. One of them is a Nike promotional video which features Rihanna dancing in a nightclub. The second (official) version was shot for music and music related television stations, which premiered on MTV's Total Request Live and MuchMusic's MuchOnDemand on March 23, 2006. In the official music video directed by Chris Applebaum, Rihanna wears a green dress and the video has her telling a guy she's going to call for help due to the desperate feelings caused by their relationship. The video shows her dancing around doing a belly dance with lights flashing. Rihanna also uses the Nokia 3250 cellular phone in the video, and she apparently seems to be listening to Tainted Love, the song sampled in SOS, as Soft Cell's album cover can be seen on the display.

The video reached number one on Total Request Live for the first time on April 14, 2006.

Chart performance

"SOS" is Rihanna's second number-two single in the UK and has also hit number two in Canada. It has also hit the top ten on the Dutch, German and Italian singles charts. In Australia "SOS" debuted at number one and stayed at the top for eight consecutive weeks (the fifth song to do so this century, the latest being Hips Don't Lie by Shakira), which later spent 9 weeks on top of the Aria Charts, replacing Rihanna as number one, making it her biggest hit in Australia. In the United States, "SOS" hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, Pop 100, Hot Dance Music/Club Play, Hot Dance Airplay, Hot Digital Songs and Hot Digital Tracks. The track was made available as a digital download upon the release of the album and its first week of digital sales prompted a dramatic jump from number thirty-four to number one — the second-biggest jump to the number one position in Hot 100 history.

"SOS" was removed from the UK charts after thirteen weeks due to the fact that there was a remix of "SOS" contained on the "Unfaithful" single. Due to chart rules you can not have a remix of your previous single on your latest single if the previous is still charting. This is why the song left the charts at the number twenty-seven position.

Charts

Chart (2006) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart 1 (8)
Australian Top 40 Digital Track Chart 1
Austrian Singles Chart 4
Belgian Singles Chart 2
Brazilian Singles Chart 24
Canadian Singles Chart 2
Dutch Singles Chart 4
Finnish Singles Chart 3
French Singles Chart 12
Israel Singles Chart 3
German Singles Chart 2
Irish Singles Chart 3
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart 3
Norwegian Singles Chart 3
Swedish Singles Chart 12
Swiss Singles Chart 3
UK Singles Chart 2
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1(3)
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay 7
U.S. Billboard Pop 100 1
U.S. Billboard Pop 100 Airplay 2
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Dance Airplay 1
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs 1
U.S. Hot Dance Airplay 1
U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play 1
U.S. Adult Top 40 16
U.S. Adult Contemporary 40
World Singles Top 40 1
VH1 Top 20 Countdown 1

Chart trajectories

U.S. Hot 100 trajectory
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Position 81 69 56 46 44 38 35 33 30 32 34
1
1
1
3
5
7
11
17
20
23
22 23 33 48 36 40 47
UK Singles Chart
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13
Position
5
2
2
2
5
7
9
12
24
21
20
21
27
Australian ARIA Singles Chart [1]
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Position
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
5
8
10
15
26
29
34
40
Canadian Singles Chart[2]
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Position
2
4
4
5
7
8
8
7
8
10
11
11
11
14
United World Chart Top 40 trajectory
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Position
37
25
21
13
9
3
1
1
2
2
3
4
4
4
4
4
5
10
16
18
Swiss Singles Top 100 chart trajectory
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Position
3
5
5
5
7
9
8
10
10
9
12
16
24
21
France Singles Top 100 chart trajectory
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Position
18
21
16
12
16
20
20
21
29
38
37
52
52
63
72
77
82
82
81
87
Preceded by ARIA (Australia) number one single
April 23 2006 - June 11 2006 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Billboard Hot 100 number-one single
May 13 2006 		Succeeded by
Preceded by World Singles Top 40 number-one single
May 7 2006 - May 21 2006 		Succeeded by

Notes

  1. ^ "Australian Top 50 Singles Chart". ARIA. Retrieved August 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ Canadian Singles Chart
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