Songfacts®:

• "SOS" is the Morse code signal for distress, chosen because it is a simple series of three dots ("S") followed by three dashes ("O"), and three more dots that can be repeated over and over until someone hears it. It was used in the days when the telegraph was used for communication, and while those days are long gone, the phrase "SOS" continues to be used as a symbol of distress.
  
  In the song, Rihanna sends out an SOS because she's confused over her feelings for a boy.
• This song is built on a sample from "Tainted Love," a 1981 hit by Soft Cell that was originally recorded by the soul singer Gloria Jones in 1964. Ed Cobb, who wrote "Tainted Love," made out well when his obscure soul song was covered into two #1 hits, meaning he receives songwriting credit and royalties on all these songs.
  
  Soft Cell's version of "Tainted Love" is an electronica classic with intriguing synthesizer elements that get pirated in "S.O.S." Another Rihanna song built on a sample of a cover song is "Shut Up And Drive," which incorporates Orgy's cover of "Blue Monday," originally recorded by New Order.
• "SOS" was the first of 14 US #1 hits for Rihanna, counting her appearances as a featured artist. She's from Barbados, with musical influences in dancehall and R&B. She and two of her friends sang as a trio on the island, performing at showcases and talent shows. An American singer/producer named Evan Rogers auditioned the group in 2003 when he was there on vacation with his wife, who is Bajan. He wasn't impressed with the other two girls, but he could tell Rihanna, 15 at the time, had something special. Over the next year, he and his partner Carl Sturken wrote songs for Rihanna and recorded them when she could take trips to America. They put together a demo tape that got the attention of Jay-Z, who had recently been appointed president of Def Jam Records. In 2005, he signed Rihanna and, later that year when she was 17, released her first single, "Pon De Replay," which climbed to #2. That was followed by "If It's Lovin' That You Want," which reached #36.
  
  Instead of working more singles from the album, Def Jam had her quickly record another, A Girl Like Me, released in 2006 when she was 18. The first single was "SOS."
  
  Def Jam kept Rihanna on a breakneck schedule, furiously recording, touring, and promoting. She was really good at it and seldom complained. Her next album, Good Girl Gone Bad, includes "Umbrella," her biggest hit.
  
  She didn't slow down until 2013 when she left Def Jam and set up her own imprint on Jay-Z's label Roc Nation (Jay left Def Jam in 2007). She didn't release her next album, Anti, until 2016, and waited six more years to release any more music. By this time, Rihanna was a billionaire, thanks largely to her beauty line, Fenty.
• This song was written by J.R. Rotem and Evan "Kidd" Bogart, who also teamed up on some Sean Kingston hits, including "Take You There." They also produced the track along with Carl Sturken.
  
  Bogart wrote the entirety of the song's second verse as a tribute to 1980s song titles. He stated in a 2024 interview with Behind the Wall: "When I wrote it, I had no idea what I was doing. The whole second verse of that song is '80 song titles strung together as sentences because I thought it would be clever... they're all #1 songs from the '80s."
  
  The six 1980s hit songs he references are (in order):
  
  A-Ha's "Take On Me"
  Cutting Crew's "(I Just) Died in Your Arms"
  Modern English's "I Melt With You"
  Tears For Fears' "Head Over Heels"
  Kim Wilde's cover of The Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On"
  Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel."
  
  Here's the verse:
  
  Take me on, I could just die up in your arms tonight
  I melt with you, you got me head over heels
  Boy you keep me hanging on the way you make me feel
  
  A note from pedant's corner: Two of the songs weren't #1 hits: "I Melt With You" only reached #76 in the US, and didn't chart in the UK. "Head Over Heels" peaked at #3 in the US and #12 in the UK.
  
  Bogart confirmed that to his knowledge, no one had picked up on this lyrical pattern before he revealed it in his Behind the Wall interview.
• It's not just the music from "Tainted Love" that are borrowed in this song. The line "I toss and turn, I can't sleep at night" also comes from that song.
• The song has two music videos. One is a Nike promotional video showing Rihanna dancing in a nightclub. In the official video, Rihanna shows up in various outfits in a very flirty state of distress. Both videos were directed by Chris Applebaum.
  
  The Nike video was an early indication of Rihanna's marketing appeal. She rocked the look and made the brand very cool to her young fans. Rihanna would later team with Armani, Puma, Dior, and other fashion brands before launching her own Fenty line.
• J.R. Rotem and Evan "Kidd" Bogart wrote the song for a girl group Bogart put together. The group didn't get a record deal, but they were able to shop "SOS" around, and Rihanna ended up recording it. Britney Spears was a big fan of the song, so Bogart and Rotem ended up working on her 2007 album Blackout.