Isaac Hayes

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, Jr.
Born	August 20 1942(1942-08-20) Covington, Tennessee, U.S.
Origin	Memphis, Tennessee
Died	August 10 2008 (aged 65) 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
Voice type(s)	Bass
Years active	1962 – 2008
Label(s)	Enterprise/Stax, ABC, Columbia Records, Pointblank
Associated acts	David Porter, Booker T. & the MGs, The Bar-Kays
Website	www.isaachayes.com

Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008 was an American soul and funk singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger, composer, and actor. Hayes was one of the main creative forces behind southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served as both an in-house songwriter and producer with partner David Porter during the mid-1960s. In the late 1960s, Hayes became a recording artist, and recorded successful soul albums such as Hot Buttered Soul (1969) and Black Moses (1971) as the Stax label's premier artist.

Alongside his work in popular music, Hayes was a film score composer for motion pictures. His best known work, 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. He received a third Grammy for the album Black Moses.

In 1992, in recognition of his humanitarian work, he was crowned an honorary king of Ghana's Ada district. Hayes also acted in motion pictures and television; from 1997 to 2006, he provided the voice for the character "Chef" on the Comedy Central animated TV series South Park.

Biography

Early years

Hayes was born in Covington, Tennessee, 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. He dropped out of high school, only to be encouraged later by his former high-school teachers at Manassas High to get his diploma, which he earned at the age of 21. He began singing at the age of five at his local church, and, soon after, he taught himself to play the piano, Hammond organ, flute, and saxophone.

Stax Records and Shaft

File:Isaac Hayes, Hot Buttered Soul Album Cover.jpg

Isaac Hayes' 1969 album Hot Buttered Soul was both a commercial success and a milestone in the development of soul music.

Hayes began his recording career in the early 1960s, as a session player for various acts of the Memphis-based Stax Records. He later wrote 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. Hayes, Porter, and Stax studio band Booker T. & the MGs served as the main production team for much of the label's output during the early and mid-1960s. In 1968, Hayes released his debut album, Presenting Isaac Hayes, a jazzy, largely improvized effort that was commercially unsuccessful.

His next album was Hot Buttered Soul, which was released in 1969 after Stax had gone through a major upheaval. The label had lost its largest star, Otis Redding, in a plane crash in December 1967. Stax lost all of its back catalog to Atlantic Records in May 1968. As a result, Stax executive vice president Al Bell called for 27 new albums to be completed in mid-1969; Hot Buttered Soul, was the most successful of these releases. This album is noted for Hayes' image (shaved head, gold jewelry, sun glasses, etc.) and his distinct sound (extended orchestral songs, heavy on organs, horns, and guitars, deep bass vocals, etc.). Also on the album, Hayes re-interprets "Walk On By" (which had been made famous by Dionne Warwick) into a 12-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 "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" runs nearly 10 minutes, a significant break from the standard three minute soul/pop songs.

"Walk On By" would be the first of many times Hayes would take a Burt Bacharach standard, generally made famous as three-minute pop songs by Dionne Warwick or Dusty Springfield, and transform it into an soulful, lengthy, and almost gospel 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. The latter spawned the classic, "The Look Of Love," another Bacharach song transformed into an 11-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 issued as a single. 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).

File:Shaft cover.jpg

The soundtrack for the 1971 blaxploitation film Shaft remains Hayes' best-known work.

In early 1971, Hayes composed music for the soundtrack of the blaxploitation film Shaft. (in the movie, he also appeared in a cameo role as the bartender of No Name Bar). 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. 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 the "Theme from Shaft," and was nominated for Best Original Dramatic Score for the film's score.

Later in the year, Hayes released a double album, Black Moses, that expanded on his earlier sounds and featured The Jackson 5's song "Never Can Say Goodbye." Another 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). He released several other non-album singles during the year, such as "Feel Like Making Love," "If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right)," and "Rolling Down a Mountainside." Atlantic 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 followed it up with the album Joy, with eerie beat of the 15-minute title track. He moved away from cover songs in this album. An edited "Joy" would be a hit single.

In 1974, Hayes was featured in the blaxploitation films Three Tough Guys and Truck Turner, and he recorded soundtracks for both. Tough Guys was being almost devoid of vocals and Truck Turner yielded a single with the title theme. The soundtrack score was eventually used by filmmaker Quentin Tarantino in the Kill Bill film series and has been used for over 30 years as the opening score of Brazilian radio show Jornal de Esportes at Jovem Pan station.

HBS (Hot Buttered Soul Records) and bankruptcy

By 1974, Stax Records was having serious financial problems, stemming from problems with overextension and limited record sales and distribution. Hayes himself was deep in debt to Union Planters Bank, which administered loans for the Stax label and many of its other key employees. In September of that year, Hayes sued Stax for $5.3 million. As Stax was in deep debt and could not pay, the label made an arrangement with Hayes and Union Planters: Stax released Hayes from his recording and production contracts, and Union Planters would collect all of Hayes' income and apply it towards his debts.

Hayes formed his own label, Hot Buttered Soul, which released its product through ABC Records. 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 album 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 large numbers. He and his wife were forced into bankruptcy in 1976, as they owed over $6 million. By the end of the bankruptcy proceedings in 1977, Hayes had lost his home, much of his personal property, and the rights to all future royalties earned from the music he'd written, performed, and produced.

Polydor and hiatus, film work, and the Duke of New York

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 "Theme from 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. The same year, Fantasy Records, which had bought out Stax Records, released an album of Hayes' non-album singles and archived recordings as a "new" album, Hotbed, in 1978.

In 1979, Hayes returned to the Top 40 with Don't Let Go and its disco-styled title track that became a hit single (U.S. number 18), 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 1990s, 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 form … and to stardom

Hayes launched a comeback on the Virgin label in 1995 with Branded, an album of new material that earned impressive sales figures as well as positive reviews from critics who proclaimed it a return to form. A companion album released around the same time, Raw and Refined, featured a collection of previously unreleased instrumentals, both old and new.

In a rather unexpected career move shortly thereafter, Hayes charged back into the public consciousness as a founding star of Comedy Central's controversial—and wildly successful—animated TV series, South Park. Hayes provided the voice for the character of "Chef," the amorous elementary-school lunchroom cook, from the show's debut on August 13, 1997 (one week shy of his fifty-fifth birthday), through the end of its ninth season in 2006. The role of Chef drew on Hayes's talents both as an actor and as a singer, thanks to the character's penchant for making conversational points in the form of crudely suggestive soul songs. An album of songs from the series appeared in 1998 with the title Chef Aid: The South Park Album reflecting Chef's popularity with the show's fans, and the Chef song "Chocolate Salty Balls" became a number-one U.K. hit.

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.

Basketball team ownership

On July 17, 1974, Hayes, along with Mike Storen, Avron Fogelman, and Kemmons Wilson took over ownership of the American Basketball Association team the Memphis Tams. 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-percent 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 champion Kentucky Colonels in the Eastern Division semifinals), the team's financial problems continued. The group was given a deadline of June 1, 1975 to sell 4,000 season tickets, obtain new investors, and arrange a more favorable lease for the team at the Mid-South Coliseum. The group did not come through and the ABA took over the team, selling it to a group in Maryland that renamed the team the Baltimore Hustlers and then the Baltimore Claws before the club finally folded during preseason play for the 1975-1976 season.

Scientology activism

Hayes joined Scientology around 1995. He contributed endorsement blurbs for many Scientology books. The frontispiece page for Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought (1997 paperback edition) quotes Hayes as saying "If you really want to know about the mind, the spirit and life itself, read Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought. It will put you on the right path!"

Hayes also appears in the Scientology film Orientation.

Hayes and Doug E. Fresh, another Scientologist musician, recorded an album in 2001 called The Joy Of Creating - The Golden Era Musicians And Friends Play L. Ron Hubbard. The album incorporates Scientology themes in the lyrics, such as "Let me tell you something.

Stroke and death

On March 20, 2006, Roger Friedman of Fox News reported that Hayes had suffered a stroke in January. On August 10, 2008, Hayes was found unconscious in his home located just east of Memphis, Tennessee. A Shelby County Sheriff's deputy responded to Hayes's home after his wife found him on the floor near a still-running treadmill. Hayes was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, where he was pronounced dead at 2:08 p.m. At the time of his death, he was preparing his first new studio album since 1995.

He is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis.

South Park's Chef

File:ChefSP.jpg

Isaac Hayes was the voice of Chef on South Park.

During the late-1990s, Hayes became popular as the voice of Chef on the Comedy Central series South Park. Chef was a soul-singing cafeteria worker at the South Park kids' school. A song from the series performed by Chef, "Chocolate Salty Balls (P.S. I Love You)," received international radio airplay in 1999. It reached number-one on the UK singles chart and also on the Irish singles chart. The track also appeared on the album Chef Aid: The South Park Album in 1998.

Scientology episode

In the South Park episode "Trapped in the Closet," a satire and exposé of Scientology which aired on November 16, 2005, Hayes did not appear in his role as Chef. In an interview for The A.V. Club on January 4, 2006, Hayes was asked about the episode. Hayes said that he told the creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, "Guys, you have it all wrong. We're not like that. I know that’s your thing, but get your information correct, because somebody might believe that shit, you know?" He then told them to take a couple of Scientology courses to understand what they do. In the interview, Hayes defended South Park's style of controversial humor, noting that he was not pleased with the show's treatment of Scientology, but conceding that he "understands what Matt and Trey are doing."

On March 13, 2006, a statement was issued in Hayes' name, indicating that he was asking to be released from his contract with Comedy Central, citing recent episodes which satirized religious beliefs as being intolerant."

The South Park season 10 premiere (aired March 22, 2006) featured "The Return of Chef," a thinly veiled telling of the affair from Parker and Stone's point of view. Using sound clips from past episodes, it depicts Chef as having been brainwashed and urges viewers (via Kyle talking to the town) to "remember Chef as the jolly old guy who always broke into song" and not to blame Chef for his defection, but rather, as Kyle stated, "be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brains."

After South Park

Hayes’ income was sharply reduced as a result of leaving South Park. There followed announcements that he would be touring and performing. A reporter present at a January 2007 show in New York City, who had known Hayes fairly well, reported that "Isaac was plunked down at a keyboard, where he pretended to front his band. He spoke-sang, and his words were halting. He was not the Isaac Hayes of the past."

In April 2008, while a guest on The Adam Carolla Show, Hayes stumbled in his responses to questions - possibly as a result of health or related issues. A caller questioned whether Hayes was under the influence of a substance, and Carolla and co-host Teresa Strasser asked Hayes if he had ever used marijuana. After some confusion on what was being asked, Hayes replied that he had only ever tried it once. During the interview the radio hosts made light of Hayes' awkward answers, and replayed Hayes comments as sound drops - often simulating conversation with his co-hosts. Hayes stated during this interview that he was no longer on good terms with Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

During the spring of 2008, Hayes shot scenes for a comedy about soul musicians inspired by the history of Stax Records entitled Soul Men, in which he will appear as himself in a supporting role. The film is scheduled for release in November 2008.

Charitable work

The Isaac Hayes Foundation was founded in 1999 by Isaac Hayes.

In February 2006, Hayes appeared in a Youth for Human Rights International music video called "United." YHRI is a human rights group founded by a Scientologist.

Hayes was also involved in other human rights related groups such as the One Campaign.

Family

Hayes fathered 12 children, and has 14 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His fourth wife Adjowa gave birth to a son named Nana Kwadjo Hayes on April 10, 2006. One son is his namesake, Isaac Hayes III.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Result	Category	Film, album, or song
1972	Academy Award	Nominated	Best Music, Original Dramatic Score	Shaft
		Won	Best Music, Original Song (For the song "Theme from Shaft")	Shaft
1972	BAFTA Award	Nominated	Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music	Shaft
1998	BMI Film & TV Award	Won	BMI TV Music Award	Soul Man (Shared with David Porter)
1972	Golden Globe Award	Nominated	Best Original Song (For the song "Theme from Shaft")	Shaft
		Won	Best Original Score	Shaft
1972	Grammy Award	Won	Best Instrumental Arrangement (For the song "Theme from Shaft," arranged with Johnny Allen)	Shaft
			Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special	Shaft
1973			Best Pop Instrumental Performance By An Arranger, Composer, Orchestra and/or Choral Leader	Black Moses
1999	NAACP Image Award	Nominated	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series	South Park
2006	Screen Actors Guild Award	Nominated	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Hustle & Flow (Shared with cast)

Discography

Top Forty US and UK albums

• 1969: Hot Buttered Soul (US #8)
• 1970: The Isaac Hayes Movement (by The Isaac Hayes Movement, US #8)
• 1970: ...To Be Continued (US #11)
• 1971: Shaft (US #1)
• 1971: Black Moses (US #10)
• 1973: Joy (US #16)
• 1973: Live at the Sahara Tahoe (US #14)
• 1975: Chocolate Chip (US #18)
• 1979: Don't Let Go (US #39)

Top Forty US and UK singles

• 1969: "Walk on By" (US #30)
• 1969: "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (US #37)
• 1971: "Theme from Shaft" (US #1)
• 1971: "Never Can Say Goodbye" (US #22)
• 1972: "Do Your Thing" (US #30)
• 1973: "Joy" (US #30)
• 1980: "Don't Let Go" (US #18)
• 1999: (as Chef) "Chocolate Salty Balls" (UK #1)

Selected songwriting and production with David Porter

• 1965: "Candy" by The Astors
• 1965: "You Don't Know Like I Know" by Sam & Dave
• 1966: "Let Me Be Good to You" by Carla Thomas
• 1966: "B-A-B-Y" by Carla Thomas
• 1966: "Your Good Thing (Is About to End)" by Mabel John(later a big hit by Lou Rawls) .
• 1966: "Hold On, I'm Comin'" by Sam & Dave
• 1967: "When Something is Wrong with My Baby" by Sam & Dave
• 1967: "Soul Man" by Sam & Dave
• 1968: "I Thank You" by Sam & Dave
• 1969: "So I Can Love You" by The Emotions (production only)
• 1969: "The Sweeter He Is" by The Soul Children
• 1969: "Soul Sister Brown Sugar" by Sam & Dave

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1973	Wattstax	Himself
1974	Truck Turner	Mac "Truck" Turner
1976	It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time	Moriarty
1976–1977	The Rockford Files	Gandolph Fitch	TV, 3 episodes
1981	Escape from New York	The Duke
1985	The A-Team	C.J. Mack	TV, 1 episode
1986	Hunter	Jerome "Typhoon" Thompson	TV, 1 episode
1987	Miami Vice	Holiday	TV, 1 episode
1988	I'm Gonna Git You Sucka	Hammer
1990	Fire, Ice and Dynamite	Hitek Leader/Himself	Alternative title: Feuer, Eis und Dynamit
1993	CB4	Owner
	Possee	Cable
	Robin Hood: Men in Tights	Asneeze
	American Playhouse	Prophet	TV, 1 episode
1994	It Could Happen to You	Angel Dupree
	Tales from the Crypt	Samuel	TV, 1 episode
1995	The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air	Minister	TV, 1 episode
1996	Flipper	Sheriff Buck Cowan
	Sliders	The Prime Oracle	TV, 1 episode
1997–2005	South Park	Chef (Voice)	TV, 137 episodes
1998	Blues Brothers 2000	The Louisiana Gator Boys
1999	South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut	Chef (Voice)
	The Hughleys	The Man	TV, 2 episodes
2000	Reindeer Games	Zook
	Shaft	Mr. P	Uncredited
2001	Dr. Dolittle 2	Possum (Voice)
2002	The Education of Max Bickford	"Night Train" Raymond	TV, 1 episode
	Fastlane	Detective Marcus	TV, 1 episode
2003	Girlfriends	Eugene Childs	TV, 2 episodes
2005	Hustle & Flow	Arnel
2005–2006	Stargate SG-1	Tolok	TV, 4 episodes
2008	Soul Men	Himself
2008	Return to Sleepaway Camp	Charlie

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Boston, Lloyd. Men of Color: Fashion, History, Fundamentals. New York: Artisan, 1998.

ISBN 978-1579651121

• Corio, David, & Goldman, Vivien. The Black Chord: Visions of the Groove: Connections Between Afro-beats, Rhythm & Blues, Hip Hop, and More. New York: Universe, 1999. ISBN 978-0789303370
• Phinney, Kevin. Souled American: How Black Music Transformed White Culture. New York: Billboard Books, 2005. ISBN 978-0823084043
• Ramsey, Guthrie P. Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-hop. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0520210486

External links

• IsaacHayes.com
• MP3 audio interview with Stax Records expert Rob Bowman on the radio program The Sound of Young America, including information on Hayes' performance at Wattstax
• InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse: Isaac Hayes (TV interview)
• Isaac Hayes Memorial at Find A Grave

Credits

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