THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

344-Arrow-Hot Hot Hot

1984-Number 59 single. It was remixed, and re-released in 1994 as the ‘World Carnival Mix 94,’ and this time reached Number 38.

Best Bit-At 5.54. The song has been featured in numerous film and television programmes over the years, but of course most fittingly when used as the theme for the 1989 Miss Universe competition.

Arrow was born Alphonsus Celestine Edmund Cassell on November 16th, 1949, in Montserrat, West Indies, he died at his home in Montserrat on September 15th, 2010, at the age of 60 from cerebral cancer. He first started out singing Calypso, but over time would fuse other genres such as R&B and Salsa, he is best remembered as a Soca musician.

‘Hot Hot Hot’ was the title track from Arrow’s eighth Album release from 1982. The song was written by Arrow’s brother Justin ‘Hero’ Cassell, and produced and arranged by Leston Paul, worldwide the song is the best selling Soca song of all time. In total Arrow released 30 Albums between 1972-2002, his only other charting single in the UK is ‘Long Time’ which made Number 30 in 1984.

The song gained further recognition in 1987 when covered by David Johansen as his lounge singer persona ‘Buster Pointdexter,’ the song reached Number 45 on Billboard in America. This was quite a change in style for Johansen who had previously been the singer with the Punk band New York Dolls between 1971-1976, he also rejoined them for their 2004-2011 reunion.

‘Soca’ is a genre of music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 1970’s, by the fusing of other musical genres such as Calypso, Reggae, Latin, and traditional West African rhythms. It was the Trinidadian musician Garfield Blackman (1941-2000) better known by his stage name ‘Lord Shorty’ who is recognised as defining the genre. It was originally spelt ‘Sokah,’ by Lord Shorty (taken from SOul of CAlypso) but through an error in a local newspaper when reporting on the new genre it was misspelled as ‘Soca,’ Lord Shorty confirmed the error but chose to leave it that was in order to avoid confusion.

‘Calypso’ (see also best songs 390) music originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to mid 19th Century. As English replaced ‘patois’ (Antillean creole) as the dominant language it was often used by the masses to put their point across to challenge those in government. In 1996 Arrow explained what he saw as the difference between Soca and Calypso, using this song as an example.’Feeling ‘Hot Hot Hot’ makes you forget that there’s a volcano, and remember there’s fun to be had. Soca was made for dancing, and didn’t carry any political messages.’

‘Me mind on fire, me soul on fire, all da people all around me feelin’ hot hot hot. A what to do on a night like this, is it sweet, I can’t resist. We need a party sound, a fun-da-mental charm so we can rhum boom boom boom.’