Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes was the man behind the curtain at Stax Records long before he stepped out front. Born in 1942, he spent the 1960s in the label's engine room, writing songs with his partner David Porter for Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas and a whole roster of others, playing sessions on organ and piano, and producing records. The Songwriters Hall of Fame eventually took in Hayes and Porter together in 2005.

Then, late in the decade, he stepped up to the microphone himself, and soul got a lot more luxurious. Hot Buttered Soul in 1969, with its slow-burning "Walk On By", and Black Moses in 1971 turned that deep voice and those lavish arrangements into a sound all his own. Hollywood came calling next: he scored the film Shaft, and in 1972 "Theme from Shaft" won him the Academy Award for Best Original Song, making him only the third black person to win an Oscar in a competitive category. Two Grammys came that same year, and Black Moses brought a third.

He kept moving, into acting in Truck Turner, Escape from New York and The Rockford Files, and later into voicing Chef on South Park. Ghana's Ada region crowned him an honorary king in 1992 for his humanitarian work there, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him in 2002. He died in 2008.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.