“SOS” by Rihanna is one of the best bops released over the last two decades. It’s got everything pop lovers crave in a track: sass, a beat to shake your ass to and, of course, Rihanna. Now, 15 years on from the release, the songwriter behind the iconic track has revealed a secret from his process of writing the second verse.
Speaking to Daniel Wall on his podcast Behind The Wall, songwriter and composer Evan “Kidd” Bogart revealed that he created the second verse to “SOS” by compiling the titles of a heap of number-one songs from the 1980s.
“The whole second verse of that song is 80s song titles strung together as sentences because I thought it would be super clever,” Bogart explained.
Let’s have a look, shall we? Below are the lyrics to the second verse.
There’s “Take On Me” by A-Ha — I see what he did there with the “uh-huh”. Very clever.
There is also “(I Just) Died In Your Arms” by Cutting Crew, “I Melt with You” by Modern English, “Head Over Heels” by Tears For Fears, “You Keep Me Hanging On” by Kim Wilde and “The Way You Make Me Feel” by Michael Jackson.
In the interview, Bogart also reflected on his process of creating the track and revealed that it was actually the first pop song he’d ever written for an artist.
“I wrote a lot of rap songs before that,” he told the host.
“If you really look at how that song was written, it’s not written by someone who knows anything about writing pop music. I was just going on instinct. If you look at the verses, they’re crafted with a lot of clever word play and internal rhyme schemes like a rapper.
“‘You got me stressing, incessantly pressing the issue, ‘cos every moment gone you know I miss you’ — It’s written like a rapper.”
Bogart also stated that the bit where Rhianna sings “SOS” is actually the pre-chorus, with the “This time please someone come and rescue me” as the actual chorus!
FACTS! I’ll never listen to it the same again.
What a fun little tidbit for a Thursday.
The post The Guy Who Wrote Rihanna’s ‘SOS’ Reveals The Entire 2nd Verse Consists Of Iconic Song Titles appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
