“The whole second verse of that song is ‘80s song titles, strung together as sentences”: No one knew about the lyrical Easter eggs I dropped into a Rihanna hit single, says songwriter Evan Kidd Bogart

Rihanna - SOS (Official Music Video) - YouTube

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When an artist drops an Easter egg into a song, we’re guessing that the hope is that, at some point, someone will spot it. That’s the whole point, right?

In the case of Rihanna’s SOS, though, it seems that an in-joke has gone unacknowledged for more than 18 years.

Speaking to Daniel Wall’s Behind The Wall podcast, songwriter Evan Kidd Bogart has revealed that the second verse of the song - the lead single from Rihanna’s 2006 sophomore LP, A Girl Like Me - is stuffed with the titles of ‘80s hits. But no one was paying attention.

“The whole second verse of that song is ‘80s song titles, strung together as sentences, because I thought it would be super clever,” says Bogart.

And, when you listen back, there they are: 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 You Keep Me Hangin On; and Michael Jackson’s The Way You Make Me Feel.

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♬ original sound - Daniel Wall

There is a certain logic to Bogart’s mischievousness here, as SOS is built around a sample from another classic ‘80s song, Soft Cell’s Tainted Love. Were it to be released today, we’re pretty sure that all those lyrical references would be picked apart, but in the pre-social media days of 2006, no one made the connection.

Also in the interview, Bogart confirms what co-writer Ryan Tedder said earlier this year about Beyonce’s Halo coming together in a matter of hours.

“Ryan was going through sounds on his keyboard and I was going through titles, and literally as my finger hit the word ‘halo’, he hit the pads. And three hours later the song was done.”