Isaac Hayes hit #1 with “Shaft”

Theme from Shaft Isaac Hayes

Writer(s): Isaac Hayes (see lyrics here) First Charted: September 24, 1971 Peak: 12 BB, 12 CB, 12 GR, 12 HR, 6 AC, 2 RB, 4 UK, 11 CN, 7 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 23.0 video, 61.88 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “The blaxploitation movies of the ’70s…were cheap movies, made quickly…[but] a lot of the lead performances — the ones from Pam Grier, Jim Brown, Fred “The Hammer” Williamson — are absolutely magnetic.” SG “But most of them are not pure cinematic wonders, except on one aspect. That aspect is music.” SG These “formulaic movies had soundtracks from straight-up black-pop geniuses, all working at or near their peaks.” SG The best of them all may have been Shaft, a “tough and terse detective movie with a charismatic performance from the then-unknown Richard Roundtree” SG and a theme song from Isaac Hayes. He was “a self-taught visionary who was right in the midst of remaking soul music in his own image.” SG He “grew up dirt-poor in Tennessee,” SG eventually working as a keyboardist, arranger, and songwriter at Stax Records, the “sweaty, grimy alternative to what Motown was doing at the time.” SG Hayes “established the blueprint for an influential new funky stew” TB in which R&B shifted “towards fun and towards a jazzier, blacker sound.” TC He dug up a cut he’d made a year earlier. TB The resulting “Theme from Shaft”was “a stunning and ambitious and deeply funky piece of beautiful silliness” SG in which Hayes was in on the joke. He “figured out how to communicate everything you needed to know…about the movie, about the character, and about the entire nascent genre of films.” SG Musically, the song “keeps piling on new elements…it’s a groove that keeps expanding.” SG Lyrically, Hayes croons praises “in his rumbling bass voice” TC about “the black private dick who’s a sex machine to all the chicks,” SG knowing he’s being “both massively cool and deeply goofy.” SG “There’s a humor in his interplay with the backing singers, the ones who crow ‘shut your mouth’ when he starts to cuss.” SG Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Isaac Hayes TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Page 812. DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 193. SG Stereogum (2/12/2019). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 131. First posted 1/18/2024.