Remembering Isaac Hayes

Today, we lost a musical giant. Isaac Hayes died today, just ten days before his 66th birthday. He was found by his wife at home, unconscious on the floor, near a still running treadmill.

Isaac was born in Covington, Tennessee on August 20, 1942. He began his recording career in the early 1960s as a session player for numerous acts signed to Stax Records. He later wrote a string of hit songs with his songwriting partner David Porter, like “Soul Man”, “When Something Is Wrong With My Baby” and “Hold On I’m Comin’”. Hayes, Porter and the band Booker T. and the MGs served as the main production team for much of the material on the Stax label during the early and mid ‘60s. Isaac released his first solo album, Presenting Isaac Hayes, in 1967. That was followed in 1969 by Hot Buttered Soul. 1970 saw the release of two albums - The Isaac Hayes Movement and ...To Be Continued. All of this set the stage for Isaac’s greatest success - the 1971 soundtrack to the blaxploitation film “Shaft” (he also had a cameo in the movie). “Theme From Shaft” was a number one hit that won Isaac an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The song and the album picked up a combined three Grammy awards. On the heals of the soundtrack’s success, Isaac released Black Moses later in 1971. Live At The Sahara Tahoe and the studio album Joy were both issued in 1973. By 1974, Isaac’s tenure with the dying Stax label had come to an end (actually, Isaac’s music was released on the Stax subsidiary, Enterprise Records). By the mid 1970s, his sound had fully embraced disco. Despite diminished commercial success, Isaac continued to record for a number of different labels. 

Times would get hard for Isaac (and his wife) as they were forced into bankruptcy in 1976. By the early 1980s, Isaac would get more involved in acting. He had been bitten by the acting bug during the ‘70s, but now chose to make it as much of a priority as music. In 1995, Isaac would release his final musical statements with two albums - Branded and Raw And Refined. Around this same time, he became involved in Scientology. Isaac also became the voice of Chef in the television series “South Park”. Isaac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

Isaac Hayes will be missed. Can you dig it?