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Shaft (album)

Shaft
Shaft cover.jpg
Soundtrack album by Isaac Hayes
Released August 1971
Recorded 1971
Stax Recording Studios
(Memphis, Tennessee)
Genre Funk, soul
Length 69:29
Label Enterprise
ENS-2-5002
Producer Isaac Hayes
Isaac Hayes chronology
...To Be Continued
(1971)
Shaft
(1971)
Black Moses
(1971)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
All About Jazz (favorable)
Allmusic 4.5/5 stars
Robert Christgau C+
Mojo (favorable)
Pitchfork Media (8.5/10)
Q 4/5 stars
Warr.org 4.5/5 stars
Yahoo! Music (favorable)

Shaft is a double album by Isaac Hayes, recorded for Stax Records' Enterprise label as the soundtrack LP for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1971 Soul Cinema Classic film Shaft. The album mostly consists of instrumentals composed by Hayes as score for the film. Three vocal selections are included: "Soulsville", "Do Your Thing", and "Theme from Shaft". A commercial and critical success, Shaft is Hayes' best-known work and the best-selling LP ever released on a Stax label.

In 2014, the album was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Hayes initially became involved with Shaft in hopes of having director Gordon Parks cast him in the title role, but was not aware that Richard Roundtree had already been cast as John Shaft. Hayes did appear in the film in a cameo role, but, more significantly, composed the film's score. While the film was still in production, Parks sent Hayes raw footage of some of the film's scenes, and Hayes wrote three pieces for the scenes: "Theme from Shaft" for the opening title sequence, "Soulsville" for a scene in which Shaft walks through Harlem, and "Ellie's Love Theme" for a love scene.

Pleased with the results, MGM hired Hayes to compose the rest of the score, and the musician spent two months working between tour dates on the score at the MGM studio. Once the score was composed and arranged, Hayes recorded the rhythm tracks with Stax band The Bar-Kays in one day. The orchestral tracks were recorded the next day, and the vocals the day after that. The songs were later re-recorded for the album at Stax Studios and slightly rearranged from their film versions: MGM's recording facility was based upon a three-track system, and Hayes wanted a richer sound for the album).


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