Hot Hero Sandwich Clip Job! The Music Performances

by G. Jack Urso 

One big attraction for Hot Hero Sandwich’s appeal to its young audience was the music performances. Disco, New Wave, Rock, and even Latin Jazz found its way to Studio 8-H and Hot Hero managed to snap up some of the top names of the era, including Sister Sledge, Eddie Money, Joe Jackson, Rex Smith, Stephen Stills, The Little River Band, and more.

In the years just prior to the debut of MTV in 1981, just one year after Hot Hero Sandwich, teen interest in music videos was at an all-time high. Midnight Special, Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, Pop Clips, Friday Night Videos, and others, primed the late Baby Boomer/Gen X crowd for this genre and Hot Hero Sandwich was in an excellent position to capitalize on it. As noted by Paul O’Keefe in his interview for the Hot Hero Sandwich Project, “Studio 8-H was originally the radio studio for the NBC orchestra. It had very good acoustics for a TV studio.” Additionally, Hot Hero Sandwich shared crew with Saturday Night Live, which by 1979 had four solid years of recording acts for that show, so the performances for Hot Hero were filmed by top-notch technicians who needed only one or two run-throughs to nail down the acts on video. These taped performances are on par with anything SNL produced.

As for the performances themselves, Hot Hero Band producer Felix Pappalardi acknowledges in a Nov. 24, 1979, Record Word article, due to all the neon on stage, a loud hum was created when the amplifiers were turned on, so the performances were lip-synced, though it does appear that vocally the singers were still belting it out and the musicians hit their notes on target and on time.

All clips are hosted on the Hot Hero Sandwich Central YouTube channel. For all performances by the Hot Hero Band, please visit the article, Hot Hero Band Video Clips.

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On Studio 8-H:

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 1: Sister Sledge, “We Are Family”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 1: Sister Sledge, "He's the Greatest Dancer”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 2: Andy Breckman,“Tommy Two,” with the Hot Hero Band

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 2: Little River Band, “It's Not a Wonder”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 2: Little River Band, “Lonesome Loser”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 3: Eddie Money, “You Can't Keep a Good Man Down”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 4: Stephen Stills, “Love the One You're With”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 4: Stephen Stills, “Sugar Babe”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 5: Joe Jackson, “On Your Radio”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 6: Andy Breckman and the Hot Hero Band, “My Friend Bernie”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 6: Eddie Money, “Jealousys”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 6: Eddie Money, “Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 8: The Palmieri Brothers

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 9: The Persuasions and The Puberty Fairy”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 9: The Persuasions, “People Get Ready”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 10: Rex Smith, “Sooner or Later”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 10: Rex Smith, “Tonight”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 11: Joe Jackson, “Is She Really Going Out With Him”

• Hot Hero Sandwich Episode 11: Andy Breckman and the Hot Hero Band, “Here We Come and There We Go”

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In addition to the performances on Studio 8-H, Hot Hero Sandwich also produced short films and animation (by Jerry Lieberman Productions) for a variety of music genres.

Animation and Short Films:

• Episode 1, “I'm Only Sleeping”: Originally The Beatles version, replaced with a cover version by Go Fret due to a limited copyright release.

• Episode 1 Animation Segment, The Coasters “Yakety Yak”

• Episode 4 Short Film, Donovan, “I Love My Shirt”

• Episode 6 Animation Segment, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, “Wild Night”

• Episode 7 Animation Segment, Chuck Berry, “School Day (Ring Ring Goes the Bell)”

• Episode 8 Animation Segment, Dave Dudley, “Rollin’ Rig” (“Stork Deliveries”)

• Episode 8, “When I'm 64”: Originally, this clip used the versions by The Beatles, here replaced with a cover version by the 101 Strings due to a limited copyright release.
• Episode 10, “Ebony Eyes”: A tribute to Black girls and women set to Stevie Wonder's “Ebony Eyes,” overlayed with a woman doing snippets of "Phenomenal Woman," and another poem (“I’m Gonna Draw Me a Black Madonna”).

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