| Isaac Hayes |

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)
Covington, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Origin |
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.
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
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