''Shaft'' is a double album by

Isaac Hayes Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, songwriter, composer, and actor. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records in the 1960s, serving as an in-house songwr ...

, recorded for

Stax Records Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in September 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records. ...

' Enterprise label as the soundtrack LP for

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

's 1971

blaxploitation In American cinema, Blaxploitation is the film subgenre of action movie derived from the exploitation film genre in the early 1970s, consequent to the combined cultural momentum of the black civil rights movement, the black power movement, ...

film '' Shaft''. The album mostly consists of instrumentals composed by Hayes as score for the film. Three vocal selections are included: "Soulsville", "Do Your Thing", and " Theme from ''Shaft''". A commercial and critical success, ''Shaft'' is Hayes' best-known work and the best-selling LP ever released on a Stax label. In 2014, the album was added to the

National Recording Registry The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservation ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Conception

Hayes initially became involved with ''Shaft'' in hopes of having director Gordon Parks cast him in the title role, because he was not aware that Richard Roundtree had already been cast as John Shaft. Hayes did appear in the film in a cameo role, but, more significantly, composed the film's score. While the film was still in production, Parks sent Hayes raw footage of some of the film's scenes, and Hayes wrote three pieces for the scenes: "Theme from ''Shaft''" for the opening title sequence, "Soulsville" for a scene in which Shaft walks through Harlem, and "Ellie's Love Theme" for a love scene.Bowman, Rob (1997). Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records. New York: Schirmer Trade. p.229-233 Pleased with the results, MGM hired Hayes to compose the rest of the score, and Hayes spent two months working between tour dates on the score at the MGM studio. Once the score was composed and arranged, Hayes recorded the rhythm tracks with Stax band The Bar-Kays in one day. The

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

l tracks were recorded the next day, and the vocals the day after that. The songs were later re-recorded for the album at Stax Studios and slightly rearranged from their film versions: MGM's recording facility was based upon a three-track system, and Hayes wanted a richer sound for the album.

Reception

Upon its release in the summer of 1971, ''Shaft'' became the first double album of original studio material released by an R&B artist. The album peaked at number one on The Billboard 200 chart, and spent sixty weeks on the chart. It took the top position on the

Top R&B Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...

chart for 14 weeks. It achieved

Platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

status within a month of its release. Both "Theme from ''Shaft''" and "Do Your Thing" became Top 40 singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, with the former peaking at number one. At the 1972

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

, "Theme from ''Shaft''" won the awards for Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical and Best Instrumental Arrangement. The film score as a whole won for Best Instrumental Composition Written Specifically For A Motion Picture or for Television. The National Association of Television and Radio Announcers gave ''Shaft'' its Album of the Year award. At the

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

that year, Hayes became the first

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

to win an Oscar for a non-acting category when "Theme from ''Shaft''" won the award for Best Original Song. Isaac Hayes was nominated for Original Dramatic Score as well, losing to

Michel Legrand Michel Jean Legrand (; 24 February 1932 – 26 January 2019) was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, jazz pianist, and singer. Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to ma ...

for the score to '' Summer of '42''. In a 2020 retrospective on the ''Shaft'' franchise, ''RetroFan'' stated that "Hayes' score helped change the way music was used in film, bringing in a more contemporary, funk/soul-driven sound. It had an especially significant impact on the coming wave of black films, setting the standard for how R&B music would be used in films, and marketed alongside of individual movies." The 2009 re-release of the soundtrack on CD by Stax Records added an additional track, "Theme from ''Shaft''" (2009 Mix), timed at 4:45. The 2019 re-release on 2 CDs by Craft Recordings includes remastered Original Soundtrack and 22 bonus tracks from the Original Score.

Track listing

All songs written and produced by

Side one

#" Theme from ''Shaft''" (Vocal Version) – 4:39 #"Bumpy's Lament" – 1:51 #"Walk from Regio's" – 2:24 #"Ellie's Love Theme" – 3:18 #"Shaft's Cab Ride" – 1:10

Side two

#"Cafe Regio's" – 6:10 #"Early Sunday Morning" – 3:49 #"Be Yourself" – 4:30 #"A Friend's Place" – 3:24

Side three

#"Soulsville" (Vocal Version) – 3:48 #"No Name Bar" – 6:11 #"Bumpy's Blues" – 4:04 #"Shaft Strikes Again" – 3:04

Side four

#"Do Your Thing" (Vocal Version) – 19:30 #"The End Theme" – 1:56

Personnel

*Lead vocals (tracks A1, C1, D1), keyboards (All tracks), and lyrics (A1, C1, D1):

*Rhythm, horn and string arrangements by Johnny Allen (tracks A1–A2, A4–D2), J. J. Johnson (A3), and Isaac Hayes (All tracks) *Backing vocals by Pat Lewis, Rose Williams and Telma Hopkins (tracks A1, C1, D1) *Instrumentation by The Bar-Kays and The Isaac Hayes Movement **

Electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument that has a piano-style musical keyboard, where sound is produced by means of mechanical hammers striking metal strings or reeds or wire tines, which leads to vibrations which are then converted into ele ...

: Lester Snell **

Guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s: Charles Pitts and Michael Toles **

Bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

: James Alexander **

Drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

: Willie Hall ** Congas,

bongos Bongos (Spanish language, Spanish: ''bongó'') are an Afro-Cubans, Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. The pair consists of the larger ''hembra'' () and the smaller ''macho'' ...

and other percussion: Gary Jones ** Lead Trumpet: Richard "Johnny" Davis **

Flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

: John Fonville *Engineers: Ron Capone, Henry Bush, Bobby Manuel *Recorded and mixed at

Stax Stax can refer to: * StAX, (Computer Programming) Streaming API for reading and writing XML in Java * Stax Ltd, a Japanese brand of electrostatic headphones * Stax Records Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, ...

Studio A, Memphis TN

Charts

''Billboard'' charts

Album

Singles

* "Do Your Thing" was also a Top 40 Pop Single

Certifications

Awards and nominations

Footnotes

{{Authority control Isaac Hayes soundtracks Shaft (franchise) Albums produced by Isaac Hayes 1971 soundtrack albums 1970s film soundtrack albums Stax Records soundtracks United States National Recording Registry recordings Action film soundtracks Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media United States National Recording Registry albums Progressive soul albums