In The 1970s ISSAC HAYES

Mr. Issac Lee Hayes was born in 1942 in Tennessee and became a session singer for Stax records in the 1960s He then started to write songs and he co-wrote Soul Man in 1967 with David Porter, and became a huge hit for Sam and Dave.

In 1970 Issac released two albums called The Isaac Hayes Movement and To Be Continued. But it was the film Shaft was to be Isaac’s greatest hit.

The film about a black detective called Shaft was a huge box office success and Issac wanted to star in it. Instead, he got the job of singing the theme. The film was No. 1, the album was No.1 and the single was No. 1 in the U.S. The song won two Academy Awards, one BAFTA, two Golden Globe and three Grammy Awards.

By the mid-1970s, Hayes sued Stax records and Stax let him go without financial penalty. Issac was in big debt, but never the less he co purchased the basketball team Memphis Tams.

Hayes had a small 1976 come back with a UK disco song called Disco Connection, but he did better in 1991 with a No. 1 featuring him called Chocolate Salty Balls. Issac Hayes died in 2008 from his second stroke aged only 66.

isaac hayes interview