What was the first heavy metal video aired on MTV? Here’s a hint. It happened on the first broadcast day in the first couple of hours on August 1, 1981, and the band that holds the honor also owns the title of having the second heavy metal video to be aired. Let’s start with the first one… the answer is… Iron Maiden’s "Iron Maiden". Back in the band’s Paul Di'Anno days, they released a concert video in May of 1981 titled Live at the Rainbow, and from that release, MTV made "Iron Maiden" the 16th video aired on the first day, and the first metal video played. It was also the 1st metal song to enter rotation on the network. As cool as all of that was, the first person in charge of vid rotation decided it would be well-placed sandwiched in between "Sailing" from Rod Stewart and "Keep on Loving You" from REO Speedwagon. Now that’s entertainment!. As stated earlier, Iron Maiden also holds the honor of second metal vid on the air. MTV pulled another cut from the Rainbow show, this time "Wrathchild" hit the airwaves as the 35th video played on day 1.