Isaac Hayes

ISAAC HAYES d2008. American songwriter, musician, actor and singer who was one of the creative geniuses behind the southern soul music label Stax Records where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer teaming with his partner David Porter during the mid-1960s. The hit song Soul Man written by Hayes & Porter and first performed by "Sam & Dave" has been recognized as one of the most influential songs of the past 50 years by the Grammy Hall of Fame. During the late 1960s, Hayes also became a recording musician and he recorded several successful soul albums including ; Hot Buttered Soul (1969) and Black Moses (1971). Doubtless, Hayes's best known work was his musical score for the film Shaft (1971) and for his composition of the Theme From Shaft for which he was awarded the Academy Award For Best Original Song in 1972. He died following a stroke aged 65 on August 10th 2008. 

SHAFT. 1971 American blaxploitation film directed by Gordon Parks released by MGM. An action film with elements of Film Noir, it tells the story of a private detective (John Shaft) who travels through Harlem and to the Italian mob neighborhoods in order to find the missing daughter of a black mobster. The Shaft soundtrack album recorded by Isaac Hayes was a huge success ; winning a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture / a Grammy Award (that he shared with Johnny Allen) for Best Instrumental Arrangement / a Grammy Award for Best Original Score "Theme From Shaft" and an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Widely considered a prime example of the blaxploitation genre, Shaft was selected in 2000 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant ..."