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Artist:

Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes

Born:
Aug 20, 1942 in Covington, Tennessee

Representative Songs:

"Theme from Shaft," "Walk on By," "Do Your Thing"

Representative Albums:

Hot Buttered Soul, Greatest Hit Singles, Shaft

Is Also Known As:

Chef

Similar Artists:

Stevie Wonder, David Porter, The Mar-Keys, Kenny Gamble, Don Covay, Barry White, Carla Thomas, Joe Tex, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield, Millie Jackson, Al Green, Marvin Gaye, The Emotions, Steve Cropper, Otis Clay, Jerry Butler, Solomon Burke, Booker T. & the MG's, 100 Proof (Aged in Soul)

Performed Songs By:

Al Jackson, Jr., Hal David, Homer Banks, Burt Bacharach, Bill Withers, Clifton Davis

Worked With:

Floyd Newman, Andrew Love, Booker T. Jones, Wayne Jackson, Donald "Duck" Dunn

Followers:

Sleepy Brown, Bobby, Michael Coleman, Wamdue Project, Chuck Strong, Jimi Tenor, Camp Lo, Organized Noize, Norman Harris, Eric B. & Rakim, The Family, Big Chief, B.A.L.L., Barry White, Happy Mondays, The Blues Brothers
  • Genre: Rhythm & Blues
  • Active: '60s - 2000s
  • Instruments: Vocals, Saxophone, Keyboards, Piano

Biography

Few figures exerted greater influence over the music of the 1960s and 1970s than Isaac Hayes; after laying the groundwork for the Memphis soul sound through his work with Stax-Volt Records, Hayes began a highly successful solo career which predated not only the disco movement but also the evolution of rap.

Hayes was born on August 20, 1942, in Covington, TN; his parents died during his infancy, and he was raised by his grandparents. After making his public debut singing in church at the age of five, he taught himself piano, organ and saxophone before moving to Memphis to perform on the city's club circuit in a series of short-lived groups like Sir Isaac and the Doo-Dads, the Teen Tones, and Sir Calvin and His Swinging Cats. In 1962, he began his recording career, cutting sides for a variety of local labels.

Two years later, Hayes began playing sax with the Mar-Keys, which resulted in the beginning of his long association with Stax Records. After playing on several sessions for Otis Redding, Hayes was tapped to play keyboards in the Stax house band, and eventually established a partnership with songwriter David Porter. Under the name the Soul Children, the Hayes-Porter duo composed some 200 songs, reeling off a string of hits for Stax luminaries like Sam & Dave (the brilliant "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby," "Soul Man," and "Hold On, I'm Comin'"), Carla Thomas ("B-A-B-Y,") and Johnnie Taylor ("I Got to Love Somebody's Baby," "I Had a Dream").

In 1967, Hayes issued his debut solo LP Presenting Isaac Hayes, a loose, jazz-flavored effort recorded in the early-morning hours following a raucous Stax party. With the release of 1969's landmark Hot Buttered Soul, he made his commercial breakthrough; the record's adventuresome structure (comprising four lengthy songs), ornate arrangements, and sensual grooves -- combined with the imposing figure cut by his shaven head, omnipresent sunglasses, and fondness for gold jewelry -- made Hayes one of the most distinctive figures in music.

After a pair of 1970 releases, The Isaac Hayes Movement and To Be Continued, he reached his commercial zenith in 1971 with the release of Shaft, the score from the Gordon Parks film of the same name. Not only did the album win Hayes an Academy Award for Best Score (the first African-American composer to garner such an honor), but the single "Theme From 'Shaft,'" a masterful blend of prime funk and pre-rap monologues, became a number one hit.

After 1971's superb Black Moses and 1973's Joy, Hayes composed two 1974 soundtracks, Tough Guys and Truck Turner (in which he also starred). By 1975, relations with Stax had disintegrated following a battle over royalties, and soon he severed his ties with the label to form his own Hot Buttered Soul imprint. Although both 1975's Chocolate Chip and 1976's Groove-a-Thon went gold, his records of the period attracted considerably less attention than prior efforts; combined with poor management and business associations, Hayes had no choice but to file for bankruptcy in 1976.

After the 1977 double-LP A Man and a Woman, recorded with Dionne Warwick, Hayes began a comeback on the strength of the hit singles "Zeke the Freak," "Don't Let Go" and "Do You Wanna Make Love." Following the success of his 1979 collection of duets with Millie Jackson titled Royal Rappins, he issued a pair of solo records, 1980's And Once Again and 1981's Lifetime Thing before retiring from music for five years. After returning in 1986 with the LP U Turn and the Top Ten R&B hit "Ike's Rap," Hayes surfaced two years later with Love Attack before again dropping out of music to focus on acting.

In 1995, fully enshrined as one of the forefathers of hip-hop and newly converted to Scientology, Hayes emerged with two concurrent releases, the vocal Branded and instrumental Raw and Refined. Under the official name Nene Katey Ocansey I, he also served as a member of the royal family of the African nation of Ghana while continuing simultaneous careers as an actor, composer, and humanitarian. In 1997, Hayes provided the voice of what was slated to be a one-time character on the animated series South Park -- Jerome "Chef" McElroy, the main characters' favorite school cafeteria worker. Hayes was an instant hit, and Chef became a regular character on the show, lending advice and, oftentimes, breaking into songs that gently sent up Hayes' image as one of R&B's ultimate love men.

South Park made Hayes more visible than ever and cemented his status as an icon with a whole new generation. He contributed the infamous "Chocolate Salty Balls" to the South Park tie-in album Chef Aid, and naturally appeared in the film South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut. In 2000, Hayes revisited his biggest triumph of the past by appearing in the remake of Shaft starring Samuel L. Jackson. The following year, he supported Alicia Keys as a musician and arranger on her acclaimed debut Songs in A Minor. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
 
 
Actor:

Isaac Hayes

  • Born: Aug 20, 1942 in Covington, Tennessee
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '70s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Action
  • Career Highlights: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Escape from New York, Shaft
  • First Major Screen Credit: Maidstone (1970)

Biography

A major figure in American soul music, Isaac Hayes has also enjoyed a long and memorable career as an actor and film composer; his score for the motion picture Shaft made him the first African-American to win an Academy Award for music, and was one of the first examples of a pop-based film score that developed a life of its own in the marketplace.

Isaac Hayes was born in Covington, TN, on August 20, 1942. Born to a family of sharecroppers, Hayes was raised by his grandparents, and developed an interest in music early in life, joining the church choir at the age of five. By the time he was a teenager, Hayes had also learned how to play piano, organ, and saxophone, but he was forced to drop out of school after the family had moved to Memphis when his grandfather developed a disability. Hayes began performing with a variety of local R&B groups in Memphis, including the Teen Tones, Sir Calvin and His Swinging Cats, and Sir Isaac and the Doo-Dads, as well as working a variety of day jobs; in time, Hayes began attending night school, and received his high school diploma at the age of 21.

In 1962, Hayes cut his first record for a local label, and in 1964 he'd worked his way up to playing keyboards with the house band at Stax Records, just then establishing themselves as one of the South's premier soul music labels. At Stax, Hayes began writing songs with David Porter, and together they penned a long string of hits for Sam and Dave, including "Soul Man," "Hold On, I'm Coming," and "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby," as well as hits for Johnny Taylor and Carla Thomas. Having established himself as a songwriter, Hayes began to step into the spotlight as a recording artist in 1967 with his first solo album, Presenting Isaac Hayes. While the album was reasonably well received, it was Hayes' second effort, Hot Buttered Soul, that established him as a unique talent in soul music, with its lush, lengthy, and languidly funky interpretations of such songs as "Walk On By" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (the latter clocking in at an epic 18 minutes). Several more successful albums followed, and in 1970, Hayes was approached to write his first film score by, of all people, Norman Mailer; Mailer went through a brief fling as an experimental filmmaker, and he hired Hayes to provide music for his third cinema verite feature, Maidstone.

In 1971, Hayes would write his second film score, which would make a much greater impact; Shaft, directed by famed photojournalist Gordon Parks, was a gritty tale of a tough private eye squaring off against both the cops and the mob in New York City, but with a primarily African-American cast, an unusual thing in 1971, and Hayes' score, which blended streetwise grooves with a brassy orchestral backing, became an instant sensation. Shaft's soundtrack album, as well as the single "Theme From Shaft," were major chart successes, and Hayes won an Academy Award for Best Musical Score. However, while Hayes was certainly proud of his achievements, at one point he'd displayed an interest in playing the lead in Shaft as well as writing the music, and after displaying an estimable amount of screen charisma in several concert films (including Wattstax and Save the Children), he was cast alongside Fred Williamson and Lino Ventura in the Italian blaxploitation-style drama Uomini Duri (released in America as Three Tough Guys); Hayes also wrote music for the film. Later that same year, Hayes scored a solo starring role in Truck Turner, but just as his acting career began taking hold, the bottom began to fall out of the blaxploitation market, and Hayes went back to making music, not scoring another film role until Escape From New York in 1981.

In the mid-'80s, Hayes returned to acting, and appeared in no fewer than 25 theatrical and television features between 1986 and 1996; most were low-budget genre fare, but several more notable films appeared on his resumé, including the blaxploitation parody/tribute I'm Gonna Git You Sucka!, Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Mario Van Peebles' African-American Western Posse, and Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored, a evocative look at life in a small Southern town in the 1940s. Hayes' acting career got an unexpected boost in 1997, when he was asked to provide the voice of Chef on the animated television series South Park; originally intended to appear in one episode, Chef went over so well that he became a recurring character on the series. Since then, Hayes has landed a number of higher-profile film roles, including Blues Brothers 2000, Reindeer Games, and of course the 2000 remake of Shaft. When not busy with acting projects, Hayes continues to play concerts and record new material; he's also a literacy activist, a supporter of children's charities around the world, and operates a pair of successful restaurants in Chicago and Memphis. ~ Mark Deming ~ All Movie Guide

 
Black Biography: Isaac Hayes

singer; composer

Personal Information

Born August 20, 1942, in Covington, TN; son of Isaac and Eula Hayes; married and divorced; eight children.
Education: Graduated from high school in Memphis.

Career

Soul music vocalist; worked in meat packing plant; performed in Memphis clubs, early 1960s; staff musician and songwriter, Stax Records, 1964-67; co-composer of hits "Soul Man" and "Hold On I'm Comin'" for Sam and Dave; released debut album Presenting Isaac Hayes, 1967; released breakthrough album Hot Buttered Soul, 1969; signed with ABC, 1975; signed with Polydor, 1977; numerous film and television appearances, 1976-; released two albums on Point Blank label, 1995; voice of Chef on television's South Park, 1996-.

Life's Work

For many years, Isaac Hayes was best remembered for the theme song from Shaft, an African American-oriented police thriller from 1971 for which he composed the music. Music fans and observers also recalled his outlandish stage shows of the 1970s, in which the bald singer appeared amidst a phalanx of musicians and dancers in a cape, a fur-and-leather shirt, masses of gold jewelry, and black tights. His career had never regained the momentum it had in the 1969-71 period, when Hayes was a top seller for the Stax label. Hayes, however, had always remained an instantly identifiable public figure and, by the late 1990s, it had become clear how greatly he had influenced subsequent generations of African American musicians.

From the beginning of his career, Hayes was an innovator. In contrast with the gospel-derived, highly-charged vocals of his soul compatriots at Stax, Hayes pioneered a cool vocal style; his relaxed baritone was conversational and romantic. The pillow talk of the 1970s and 1980s megastar Barry White was directly inspired by Hayes's style. The elaborate production and insistent four-beat of recordings such as "Shaft" prefigured the disco movement; Hayes himself had some success during the disco era. Years before the word "rap" had come to denote a musical style, Hayes was referring to the lengthy spoken interludes in his songs and performances as rapping. Modern hip-hop musicians testified to the depth of Hayes's influence by repeatedly sampling his recordings.

Isaac Hayes was born into poverty on a sharecropper's farm on August 20, 1942, in Covington, Tennessee. His mother died when he was a baby and he was raised by grandparents, who moved to Memphis when Isaac was seven. Hayes received little formal education and was forced to take jobs picking cotton, pumping gas, and helping out at a junkyard in order to survive. He persevered, however, and eventually graduated from high school. As a high school student, Hayes cultivated an interest in music that had begun when his grandparents encouraged him to sing in church at age five and had grown through the influence of another family member: "I can remember my aunt had a juke joint, and anybody who walked in the door could sing as good as B. B. King, Sonny Boy Williamson, Lightnin' Hopkins, Muddy Waters, or Howlin' Wolf," Hayes told Interview magazine. By sheer force of will, he learned to play the piano.

While working as a meat packer, Hayes fronted several bands that played in Memphis clubs in the early 1960s. Music became an integral part of his life in 1964 when he met saxophonist Floyd Newman, a member of the Mar-Keys and an early mainstay of Memphis's soul-music record label, Stax. Hayes was asked to replace the legendary Stax keyboardist Booker T. Jones on a session date, and was soon finding regular work as a Stax session musician. Many of Otis Redding's classic soul recordings for Stax featured Hayes at the keyboard.

Hayes also began to work with a lyricist friend, David Porter, and the pair had several spectacular successes as a songwriting team, most notably with the two big hits scored by the duo of Sam & Dave, "Soul Man" and "Hold On, I'm Coming." In 1967, Stax vice-president Al Bell invited Hayes to cut an album. The album, Presenting Isaac Hayes, sold poorly, but Hayes continued to refine his skills. When he received another opportunity to record an album in 1969, he was ready.

The record that launched Isaac Hayes's career, Hot Buttered Soul, was a groundbreaking work that represented Stax's effort to respond to the musical experimentation pioneered by Motown during the late 1960s. Featuring elaborate arrangements with strings and backup vocals, the entire album contained only four songs, one of them an 18-minute, 40-second version of Jimmy Webb's country-pop hit, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." Hayes extended songs through the use of introductory monologues, which he called "rapping," and by playing long instrumental interludes on the organ. The album sold over one million copies and reached number eight on the pop charts. It also marked Stax's most successful effort to cross over to popular audiences.

Hot Buttered Soul launched Hayes's solo career and he became one of the top-grossing concert acts of the early 1970s. Although he became extremely wealthy, he squandered most of his money and was forced to declare bankruptcy on two occasions. The speech-song mixtures from Hot Buttered Soul appeared in his famous Shaft theme, which featured a dialogue between Hayes and his ever-present female backup singers, and offered an unusual arrangement that included a flute and a rhythmic use of wah-wah guitar. The recording of "Shaft" reached number one on the pop charts and earned Hayes both Academy and Grammy awards. He also became the first African American composer to be honored with an Academy award.

Even as his financial troubles mounted and the careers of his fellow Stax artists declined, Hayes forged ahead during the middle and late 1970s. Signing with the ABC label in 1975 and with Polydor in 1977, Hayes made a successful foray into disco with the 1976 album Juicy Fruit and its single "Juicy Fruit (Disco Freak)." He also recorded duet albums with Dionne Warwick (A Man and a Woman, 1977) and fellow proto-rapper Millie Jackson (Royal Rappin's, 1979). Hayes also realized his long-held dream of becoming an actor, appearing on the television program The Rockford Files and taking roles in several films, including the science-fiction thriller Escape from New York and I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, the Keenen Ivory Wayans parody of the "blaxploitation" film genre.

After dropping out of sight for a time in the 1980s, Hayes re- emerged with the albums U-Turn in 1986 and Love Attack in 1988, both on the Columbia label. He released two albums for the Point Blank label in 1995, Branded and the instrumental Raw and Refined, which Interview writer Dimitri Ehrlich remarked "find him burrowing into jazzy, syncopated grooves, gracefully reveling in heightened realms of musicality and mojo." Interview estimated that Hayes's recordings had been sampled--digitally quoted--over 50 times by rappers and producers in 1993 alone, and the "gangsta" rap image plainly owed much to Hayes's grandiose stage productions. Hayes continued his acting career and, in the late 1990s, gained considerable popularity as the voice of Chef, the school-canteen worker on the outrageous animated television series South Park. He also hosted a soul music radio program on New York's KISS-FM radio station. A figure nearly universally recognized since his Shaft days, Isaac Hayes remained in the limelight.

Awards

Academy award, Best Song from a Motion Picture, and Grammy awards for Best Instrumental Arrangement and Best Original Score (all for music from Shaft), 1971; Grammy award, Best Pop Instrumental Performance (for Black Moses), 1972; two Grammy award nominations, 1978.

Works

Selective Discography

  • Presenting Isaac Hayes, Stax, 1967.
  • Hot Buttered Soul, Stax, 1969.
  • Isaac Hayes Movement, Stax, 1970.
  • Shaft (soundtrack), Stax, 1971.
  • Black Moses, Stax, 1971.
  • Tough Guys (soundtrack), Stax, 1973.
  • Chocolate Chip, ABC, 1975.
  • Juicy Fruit, ABC, 1976.
  • A Man and a Woman (with Dionne Warwick), Polydor, 1977.
  • Royal Rappin's (with Millie Jackson), Polydor, 1979.
  • Enterprise--His Greatest Hits, Stax, 1980.
  • U-Turn, Polydor, 1986.
  • Branded, Point Blank, 1995.
  • Raw and Refined, Point Blank, 1995.

Further Reading

Books

  • Contemporary Musicians, volume 10, Gale, 1994.
  • Guralnick, Peter, Sweet Soul Music, Harper & Row, 1986.
  • Romanowski, Patricia, and Holly George-Warren, eds., The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Fireside, 1995.
  • Stambler, Irwin, The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock & Soul, St. Martin's, 1989.
Periodicals
  • Billboard, March 25, 1995, p. 23.
  • Entertainment Weekly, June 9, 1995, p. 59.
  • Interview, May 1995, p. 24.
  • Newsweek, March 23, 1998; p. 60.
  • People, July 8, 1996, p. 101.

— James M. Manheim

 
Wikipedia: Isaac Hayes
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Hayes performs at the International Amphitheater in Chicago as part of the annual PUSH `Black Expo`, October 1973
Isaac Hayes performs at the International Amphitheater in Chicago as part of the annual PUSH `Black Expo`, October 1973
Background information
Birth name Isaac Lee Hayes
Born August 20 1942 (1942--) (age 65)
Flag of the United States Covington, Tennessee, U.S.
Origin Flag of the United States Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Genre(s) R&B, funk, soul, disco
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter, arranger, record producer, and actor
Instrument(s) Piano, keyboards, vocals, saxophone
Years active 1962-present
Label(s) Enterprise/Stax, ABC, Columbia Records, Pointblank
Associated
acts		 David Porter, The Bar-Kays
Website http://www.isaachayes.com
For the American arctic explorer, see Isaac Israel Hayes

Isaac Lee Hayes (born August 20, 1942, in Covington, Tennessee) is an American Grammy Award and Academy Award winning soul and funk singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger, and actor. Hayes was one of the main creative forces behind Southern soul music label Stax Records, for which he served as both an in-house songwriter/producer and later as its premier recording artist.

In addition to his work in popular music, Hayes has also written scores for several motion pictures as well. His best known film score, for the 1971 blaxploitation film Shaft, earned Hayes an Academy Award for Best Original Song (the first Academy Award received by an African-American in a non-acting category) and two Grammy Awards. Hayes received a third Grammy for his 1971 album Black Moses.

In 1992, Hayes was crowned an honorary king of Ghana's Ada district thanks to his humanitarian deeds. From 1997 to 2006, he provided the voice for "Chef", a singing ladies' man and elementary school cook, on the animated sitcom South Park.

Early years

Isaac Lee Hayes was the second-born child of Isaac Sr. and Eula Hayes, but after their deaths was raised by his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Willie Wade Sr. The child of a poor family, he grew up picking cotton in Covington, Tennessee. He dropped out of high school, only to be encouraged later by his former high school teachers at Manassas High to get his diploma. He earned his diploma at the age of 21. He began singing at the age of five at his local church. Soon after, he taught himself how to play the piano, electronic organ, flute, and saxophone.

Stax Records and Shaft

Hayes began his recording career in the early 1960s, as a session player for various acts of the Memphis-based Stax Records and later writing a string of hit songs with songwriting partner David Porter, including "You Don't Know Like I Know", "Soul Man", "When Something Is Wrong with My Baby", and "Hold On I'm Comin" for Sam and Dave. In 1968 he released his debut album Presenting..., a bluesy, largely improvised effort that did not chart highly.

The next album was Hot Buttered Soul (1969). This album is noted for his image (shaven skulled, gold jewelry, sun glasses, etc) and his distinct sound (extended orchestral songs, heavy on organs, horns, and guitars, deep bass vocals, etc). Only four songs long, Hayes re-interprets "Walk On By" into a twelve-minute exploration, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" starts with an eight-minute long monologue before breaking into song, and the lone original number, the funky "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquidalimystic" (sampled in Public Enemy's epic "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos"), runs nearly ten minutes, a significant break from the standard three minute soul/pop song format and singles-based albums.

"Walk On By" would be the first of many times Hayes would take a Bacharach standard, generally made famous as three minute pop songs by Dionne Warwick or Dusty Springfield, and transform it into an unrecognizable, lengthy and almost psychedelic number.

In 1970 Hayes released two albums, The Isaac Hayes Movement and To Be Continued. The former stuck to the four song template of his previous album. Jerry Butler's "I Stand Accused" begins with a trademark spoken word monologue, and Bacharach's "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" is re-worked. Both were hit singles[citation needed]. The latter spawned the classic "The Look Of Love", another Bacharach song transformed into an eleven-minute epic of lush orchestral rhythm (mid-way it breaks into a rhythm guitar jam for a couple of minutes before suddenly resuming the slow love song). An edited three-minute version was a hit single[citation needed]. The album also featured the instrumental "Ike's Mood" which segued into his own version of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling". Hayes released a Christmas single "The Mistletoe and Me" (with "Winter Snow" as a B-side).

In early 1971 Hayes composed music for the soundtrack of the Blaxploitation film Shaft (he also enjoyed a cameo as the bar tender of No Name Bar in the film). The title theme with its wah-wah guitar and multi-layered symphonic arrangement would become a worldwide hit single and spent two weeks at number one in the Billboard Hot 100 in November of that year. The remainder of the album was mostly instrumentals covering big beat jazz, bluesy funk, and hard Stax-styled soul. The other two vocal songs, the social commentary "Soulville" and the nineteen-minute jam "Do Your Thing" would be edited down to hit singles. Hayes won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for a Motion Picture for the "Theme from Shaft" and was nominated for Best Original Dramatic Score for Shaft.

Later in the year Hayes released a double album Black Moses that expanded on his earlier sounds and featured the hit single "Never Can Say Goodbye". The other single "I Can't Help It" was not featured on the album.

In 1972 Hayes would record the theme tune for the TV series The Men and enjoy a hit single (with "Type Thang" as a B-side)[citation needed], and release several other singles such as "Feel Like Making Love", "If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right)", and "Rolling Down A Mountainside". Although these songs never made it to an album, Fantasy Records would later collect them after buying out Stax and release these and other songs as a "new" album Hotbed in 1978. Stax themselves would re-release Hayes' debut album this year with the new title In The Beginning.

Hayes was back in 1973 with an acclaimed live double album Live At Sahara Tahoe, and follwed it up with the album Joy, his eighth album that featured the almost eerie beat of the fifteen-minute title track and a new direction moving away from covers. An edited "Joy" would be a hit single.

In 1974, Hayes featured in the Blaxploitation films Three Tough Guys and Truck Turner, and recorded acclaimed (but comparatively low-selling) soundtracks for both, Tough Guys being almost devoid of vocals and Truck Turner yielded a single with the title theme. Although low-selling, the soundtrack score was used by filmmaker Quentin Tarantino in the Kill Bill film series.

HBS (Hot Buttered Soul Records) and bankruptcy

During the mid-1970s Stax Records was having serious financial problems and was ready to close. With ten albums under his belt, Hayes left the label and formed his own, Hot Buttered Soul. His new album, 1975's Chocolate Chip saw Hayes embrace the disco sound with the title track and lead single. "I Can't Turn Around" would prove a popular song as time went on. This would be Hayes last album to chart top 40 for many years. Later in the year, the all instrumental Disco Connection fully embraced disco.

In 1976, the album cover of Juicy Fruit featured Hayes in a pool with naked women, and spawned the title track single and the classic "Storm Is Over". Later the same year the Groove-A-Thon album featured the singles "Rock Me Easy Baby" and the title track. However, while all these albums were regarded as solid efforts, Hayes was no longer selling big, leading to the closure of Hot Buttered Soul and Hayes and his wife were forced into bankruptcy, owing over $6 million.

Polydor and hiatus, film work

In 1977, Hayes was back with a new deal with Polydor Records, a live album of duets with Dionne Warwick did moderately well, and his comeback studio album New Horizon sold better and enjoyed a hit single "Out The Ghetto", and also featured the popular "It's Heaven To Me".

1978's For The Sake Of Love saw Hayes record a sequel to Shaft ("Shaft II"), but was most famous for the single "Zeke The Freak", a song that would have a shelf life of decades and be a major part of the House movement in the UK.

Universal Pictures screenshot of Isaac Hayes from season three of The Rockford Files, episode "Just Another Polish Wedding".
Enlarge
Universal Pictures screenshot of Isaac Hayes from season three of The Rockford Files, episode "Just Another Polish Wedding".

In 1979, Hayes returned to the Top 40 with Don't Let Go and its disco-styled title track that became a hit single, and also featured the classic "A Few More Kisses To Go". Later in the year he added vocals and worked on Millie Jackson's album Royal Rappin's.

Neither 1980s And Once Again or 1981's Lifetime Thing produced notable songs or big sales, and Hayes chose to take a break from music to pursue acting.

In the 1970s, Hayes featured in the films Shaft (1971) and Truck Turner (1974); he also had a recurring role in the TV series The Rockford Files as ex-con strongman Gandolph Fitch, including one episode alongside duet-partner Dionne Warwick. In the 1980s and 90s, he appeared in numerous films, notably Escape from New York (1981), I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), Prime Target (1991), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Johnny Mnemonic (1995), as well as in episodes of The A-Team and Miami Vice. He also attempted a musical comeback, embracing the style of drum machines and synth for 1986s U-Turn and 1988s Love Attack, though neither proved successful.

Return to school

Isaac Hayes in 2007
Enlarge
Isaac Hayes in 2007

Hayes launched a high-selling and successful comeback on the Virgin label in 1995. Branded was considered a return to form, and received positive reviews throughout the music press. A companion album Raw and Refined was released around the same time and featured a collection of previously unheard instrumentals, both old and new.

Hayes would become even more in the public consciousness with his long running role as overweight loverman "Chef" in the controversial hit TV series South Park. (See below)

Hayes was inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. The same year, a documentary highlighting Isaac's career and his impact on many of the Memphis artists in the 1960s onwards was produced, "Only The Strong Survive".

In 2004, Hayes appeared in a recurring minor role as the Jaffa Tolok on the television series Stargate SG-1. The following year, he appeared in the critically acclaimed independent film Hustle & Flow.

Family

Isaac Hayes is the father of 12 children, 14 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.[1] His fourth wife Adjowa[2] gave birth to a son named Nana Kwadjo Hayes on April 10, 2006.[3] One son is his namesake, Isaac Hayes III.

Basketball team ownership

On July 17, 1974 Isaac Hayes, along with Mike Storen, Avron Fogelman and Kemmonis Wilson took over ownership of the American Basketball Association team the Memphis Tams.[4] The prior owner was Charles O. Finley, the owner of the Oakland A's baseball team. Hayes' group renamed the team the Memphis Sounds. Despite a 66% increase in home attendance, hiring well regarded coach Joe Mullaney and, unlike in the prior three seasons, making the 1975 ABA Playoffs (losing to the eventual champio