Song · Isaac Hayes
“Theme From Shaft” by Isaac Hayes
Released 1973
“Theme From Shaft” by Isaac Hayes appears on 4 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 2009 and 2024. It was first released in 1973. Its best result is #126 on the 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #4,847 indie & aaa song of all time and #125 of the '70s.
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Isaac Hayes wrote and recorded "Theme from Shaft" in 1971 for MGM's Shaft, and he did the job so well that the theme outgrew the picture. The single, a trimmed-down edit of the longer soundtrack cut, came out on Stax's Enterprise label a couple of months after the album, and its soul-and-funk strut went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 that November. Some even count it among the very first disco records.
Then the trophies piled up. It took the Academy Award for Best Original Song, making Hayes the first African American to win an Oscar outside the acting categories and the first winner to have both written and performed the song, and it earned him a Grammy for its arrangement. Hayes cut it again for the 2000 Shaft sequel, and in 2014 the Library of Congress added it, along with its album, to the National Recording Registry.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 795 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009) | 885 |
| 2020 | 939 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2022 | 126 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s | 908 |
| 2024 | 530 | KEXP | The Best Opening Tracks of All Time | 738 |
Also listed as: Theme from Shaft.
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