Hot Hot Hot

Hot Hot Hot was a commercially successful dance floor single, with cover versions subsequently released by artists in several countries. The song was Arrow's first chart hit. A remix of the song, dubbed as the World Carnival Mix '94 was released in 1994 and peaked higher than the original. The song was covered in 1987 by American singer David Johansen, as his lounge singer persona Buster Poindexter, and released as the first single from his album Buster Poindexter. It garnered extensive airplay through radio, MTV, and other television appearances. The music video is unique in the fact that it crosses the two identities: despite being in the Buster Poindexter persona, the video begins with Johansen briefly mentioning his role as the frontman for the 1970s proto-punk band the New York Dolls, showing the band's vinyl and tossing them aside while talking about the really outrageous clothes he wore and how he came to be interested in a refined and dignified kind of a situation, which leads into the song. In an interview on National Public Radio, Johansen called the tune the bane of my existence, owing to its pervasive popularity as a karaoke and wedding song.

Alphonsus Celestine Edmund Cassell MBE (November 1949 – September 2010) was a Montserratian calypso and soca musician, regarded as the first superstar of soca from Montserrat. He performed under the stage name Arrow. Cassell first performed at the age of 10 in a concert at the Montserrat Secondary School. He began singing calypso in 1967 and took the Junior Monarch title that year. Cassell took up singing professionally in 1969. That year he was runner up in the Montserrat Calypso King competition. He won the title the following year, following in the footsteps of his brothers Justin (known as Hero) and Lorenzo (known as Young Challenger). He took the title a total of four times. He released his first album Arrow on Target in the summer of 1971, two singles in mid 1972, Dance with me woman, and Jean under the bed. In 1972 he released his second album, Arrow strikes again. His third album was released in 1975. Ed Watson served as arranger for these first three albums. Arrow recorded five more albums with Watson before he started working with Leston Paul. Cassell began to fuse Calypso with other genres such as Zouk, R&B, and Salsa. This resulted in some criticism and accusations that he was destroying Montserrat's Calypso traditions. Others argued that his updating of the genre brought it to a new audience. Hot Hot Hot was his biggest hit and it became the biggest selling Soca hit of all time. Hot Hot Hot was co-composed with his brother, Justin Hero Cassell. The song was adopted as the theme song of the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico and was later covered by Menudo and Babla & Kanchan. Cassell established himself as a businessman in Montserrat in 1973, owning the Arrow's Manshop store in Plymouth. When this was destroyed by the Soufriere Hills volcanic eruption, he relocated to St. John's, Antigua. Cassell continued to be much in demand in the Caribbean and performed at the Cricket World Cup 2007 opening ceremonies with Shaggy, Byron Lee and Kevin Lyttle.

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