Dave's Song of the Day
Theme from Shaft – Isaac Hayes
Wednesday song of the day: Today’s song was the first written by an African-American to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Younger people may not know it, but the guy who voiced Chef on
South Park was very important in the music business. Isaac Hayes started in the early 1960s as a session musician and then went on to become a songwriter and producer for Stax Records, writing several hit songs, including
Soul Man and
Hold On, I’m Comin’. In 1968 he began a second career as a solo performer, releasing his first album,
Presenting Isaac Hayes. The following year, he released the classic
Hot Buttered Soul album.
Probably his biggest impact came in 1971 when he was given the job of writing the soundtrack for the MGM blaxploitation film
Shaft. The result was a double album of mostly instrumental music that was included in the film. The album contained three songs that also incorporated lyrics, including the main
Theme from Shaft.
The
Theme from Shaft was released in two versions, a longer 4:39 album cut and a shorter edit that was released as a single, clocking in at 3:15. Both versions contained a long intro, lasting over half of the song’s running time before the lyrics began. And of course, there’s the famous section where the backup singers tell Hayes to “Shut your mouth” when he sings that “They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother-“, preventing him from dropping the F-bomb on the record. Oddly, the version used in the actual movie was different from the versions released on record. The film version was recorded first at MGM Studios in California, while the album and single were recorded later at Stax Records in Memphis. The singing is noticeably different on the film version, and there are minor differences in the lyrics.
The song was a huge hit, charting at #1 on the
Billboard Hot 100. As mentioned above, it also won the Oscar for Best Original Song. Hayes continued his music career for decades and also branched off into acting, starring in
Truck Turner, appearing as a recurring character in TV’s
The Rockford Files, and as The Duke of New York in the Kurt Russell film
Escape from New York. Later, he played Chef in
South Park from 1997 to 2006.
Hayes suffered a stroke in 2006 and passed away on August 8th, 2008 at 65 years old.
Album version
View: https://youtu.be/2O_6fZwxwkU
Single version
View: https://youtu.be/lopcq686HX8
Shaft movie opening credits
View: https://youtu.be/pFlsufZj9Fg
Tomorrow: My heart’s in overdrive and you’re behind the steering wheel