SOS (Rihanna song)

"SOS"
Song

"SOS (Rescue Me)" is the first single from Rihanna's second album, A Girl Like Me. Released in 2006, the song is her fourth single and her first song to hit number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Song information

The song was written by Jonathan "J.R." Rotem and Etvan Kidd Bogart. Rotem also produced the song.

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

The song features a sample of the classic 80's 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.

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 is about her telling her man she's going to call S.O.S.

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

Official versions

• Album Version (3:58)
• Chris Cox Club Mix (9:21)
• Chris Cox Radio Edit (4:00)
• Jason Nevins Elektrotek Club Mix (7:08)
• Jason Nevins Elektrotek Edit (4:07)
• Jason Nevins Future Retro Club Mix (8:14)
• Jason Nevins Future Retro Edit (4:14)
• Jason Nevins Glam Club Mix (7:45)
• Jason Nevins Glam Radio Edit
• Moto Blanco Vocal Mix (8:22)
• Moto Blanco Instrumental (8:37)
• Radio Mix (some alternate vocals/instrumentation) (3:59)

Charts

"SOS (Rescue Me)" is Rihanna's second number-two single in the UK and has also hit number two in Canada. It has hit number one in Australia and the top ten on the Dutch, German and Italian singles charts. In the United States, "SOS (Rescue Me)" has hit number one on the Pop 100, Hot Dance Music/Club Play, Hot Dance Airplay, Hot Digital Songs and Hot Digital Tracks. On the Billboard Hot 100, "SOS" had risen to number thirty based on radio airplay. 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.

Chart (2006)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	1
U.S. Billboard Pop 100 Airplay	2
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay	1
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs	1
U.S. Hot Dance Airplay	1
U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play	1
Canadian BDS Airplay	2
Austria Singles Top 75	5
Belgium UltraTop 50	3
Dutch Top 40	4
Europe Top 100	1
Finland Top 20 Singles	3
Irish Top 50	3
French Top 100 Singles	12
Germany Top 100	3
Swedish Top 60 Singles	12
United World Chart	1
UK Singles Chart	2
UK R&B Top 10 Chart	2
UK Download Chart	2
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	1
Italy Singles Chart	7

U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart trajectory
Week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Chart position	81	69	56	46	44	38	35	33	30	32	34	1	1

Dutch Top 40
Week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10
Chart position	14	4	4

UK Top 75 Singles
Week	01	02	03	04	05
Chart position	5	2	2	5

Australian ARIA Top 50
Week	01	02	03	04	05
Chart position	1	1	1

German Top 40
Week	01	02	03	04	05
Chart position	3	4	2

See also

• Hot 100 number-one hits of 2006 (USA)
• 2006 in music