of 18 consecutive Top 10 hits for ABBA in the UK and Ireland. "SOS" reached #1 in Australia, Belgium, France, West Germany (where it spent 7 weeks at the top), New Zealand and South Africa, and was a Top 3 hit in Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy (where it became ABBA's most successful hit), Mexico, Rhodesia and Switzerland. The song also became ABBA's second Top 20 hit in the United States, peaking at #15. As of September 2021, it is ABBA's 19th-biggest song in the UK, including both pure sales and digital streams. Chicago radio station WLS, which gave "SOS" much airplay, ranked the song as the 61st biggest hit of 1975. It peaked at number six on their survey of 22 November 1975. "SOS" has been recorded and performed in concert by several prominent artists, including John Frusciante, Peter Cetera, Chris deBurgh, Cher, Portishead, Fozzy, and Canadian rock group Headstones. English synth-pop duo Erasure covered SOS and three other Abba songs on their 1992 E.P. Abba-Esque, reaching number one in the UK singles chart. Ray Davies of The Kinks said that he was taken with the song after seeing the group perform it on the BBC television show Seaside Special. Pete Townshend said the song had "a great sound". American singer-songwriter and former Czars frontman John Grant has called "SOS" "one of the greatest pieces of music ever made", adding that Agnetha Fältskog's "perfect" lyrical interpretation and emotional delivery is "a beautiful thing". British conductor and producer Charles Hazlewood called the song's "supersonic" transition from an acoustic D-minor key to an electric rock motif "absolutely genius". Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock has claimed to have been inspired to write the main riff of Pretty Vacant after hearing "SOS" on a jukebox. ABBA's performance of "SOS" on American Bandstand in 1975 has been included on lists of the most significant performances in the show's 31 seasons by several reviewers and critics. Bill Lamb put the song at number five, as did Alicia Diaz Dennis and Andres Jauregui. ABBA performed "SOS" on episode five of the inaugural season of the long-running comedy-variety show Saturday Night Live (SNL) on 15 November 1975. SNL head writer Michael O'Donoghue staged the performance on a set of the deck of the Titanic and continued the sketch while the band were performing, according to bandleader Paul Shaffer, "They kept on singing like the pros that they