MARKS BEST MOVIE SONGS EVER (1955-99) COUNTDOWN ... NO. 1 THEME FROM SHAFT--ISAAC HAYES (#1, 1971, Shaft) Once one of the main songwriters at the Stax/Volt record company in Memphis and the man who co-wrote soul classics like Hold On, Im Comin and Soul Man, Isaac Hayes hit the jackpot when he landed the composing and scoring job for the blaxploitation movie Shaft in 1971 and scored a huge smash with the Theme From Shaft, winning the Oscar for both Best Original Score for the soundtrack and Best Original Song. The movie starred Richard Roundtree as a private detective in New York who is trying to keep the streets of Harlem in good working order, but also having to deal with members of the Italian mob, whose leader has had his daughter kidnapped and its up to ladies man and overall bad dude (in a good way) Shaft to find her. Though Roundtree won the role to play John Shaft, there was someone who wanted that role -- Isaac Hayes himself. Hayes (born August 20, 1942 in Covington, Tenn.) was approached by Shaft director Gordon Parks and producer Joel Freeman to compose the soundtrack to the movie. Hayes, who had minimal success on the R&B and pop charts, said hed do it as long as he would get a fair tryout for the role as Shaft. They both agreed and Hayes went to work on the soundtrack. However, Hayes was so involved in putting together the soundtrack that by the time the producer and director were ready to have him audition, he was set in doing the soundtrack. And he kept that commitment to do it and the centerpiece was this amazing theme work -- a cool blend of flutes, piano, wah-wah pedal guitar, horns and drum hi-hat that takes up the first two minutes, then Hayes singing his part for which he asks a question and the backup vocalists (one being Tony Orlando and Dawn backup singer Telma Hopkins) answer Shaft! In the middle, he goes off, saying that this cat Shaft is a bad mutha ... for which the backup singers stop him by saying, Shut yo mouth! and Hayes answers, Im talkin about Shaft! Shaft has become maybe one of the most recognizable movie songs ever. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 50 on October 16, 1971 and rocketed up 41 notches to No. 9 the next week. Four weeks after that, it was the No. 1 song in the land for two weeks, Hayes lone No. 1 hit of his career. Hayes continued to make music and actually got acting gigs he missed out on before. And in 1997, he went to another level when he became the voice of Chef on the Comedy Central TV series South Park, a role he played for nine years. Sadly, Isaac Hayes passed away from a stroke on August 10, 2008, 10 days before his 66th birthday, but his legacy will always be in tact, thanks to this amazing and superb piece of music, the No. 1 song in this Top 300 countdown. Thoughts, memories? Enjoy one last time!
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:17:15 +0000
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