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Social media was dumbfounded by this revelation from Rihanna’s 2006 hit single, “SOS.”
The song’s songwriter, Evan “Kidd” Bogart, recently shared details about the writing process of the single in an interview on Daniel Wall’s. Behind the wall podcasts. He claims he had no direction throughout the process and got creative by using 80s song titles as lyrics. “When I wrote it, I had no idea what I was doing. The whole second verse of that song is an ’80s song title strung together into a sentence because I thought it would be clever.”
The second verse contains the lines, “Hold me, I know deep down it feels right / Hold me, tonight I could die in your arms / I melt with you, you overwhelm me / Boy, you keep me waiting, the way you make me feel.”
Listeners have no idea the lyrics are related to “Take on Me” by a-ha, “(I Just) Died in Your Arms” by Cut Crew, “Head Over Heels” by Tears for Fears, “You Keep Me Hang On” by Kim Wilde and “The Way You Make Me Feel” by Michael Jackson.
The single also samples Soft Cell’s song “Tainted Love”, another hit from the ’80s.
Thanks to Rihanna’s clever composition and performance, the song became the 17-year-old girl’s first number one hit on the world music charts. Billboard Hot 100. Skyrocketing her career and building the foundation for her current pop dynasty, it remains one of the most iconic songs in her catalog.
Keywords Rihanna, Michael Jackson