Just Rock N Roll To Me: 1971 Isaac Hayes: ‘Theme From Shaft’ #1 US Single

On this date in 1971, the #1 US Single was ‘Theme From Shaft’ by Isaac Hayes.

Click the picture to watch the video for Theme From Shaft. For more videos, watch the JustFindIt4U YouTube Channel.

“Theme from Shaft“, written and recorded by Isaac Hayes in 1971, is the soul and funk-styled theme song to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film, Shaft.^[1] The theme was released as a single (shortened and edited from the longer album version) two months after the movie’s soundtrack by Stax Records’ Enterprise label (at the time owned by Paramount Pictures, which later released the 2000 version of Shaft). “Theme from Shaft” went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in November 1971. The song was also well-received by adult audiences, reaching number six on Billboard’s Easy Listening (later Adult Contemporary) chart.

The following year, “Theme from Shaft” won the Academy Award for Best Original Song,^[1] with Hayes not only becoming the first African American to win that honor (or any Academy Award in a non-acting category) but also becoming the first recipient of the award to both write and perform the winning song. Since then, the song has appeared in numerous television shows, commercials, and other movies, including the 2000 remake of Shaft, for which Hayes re-recorded the song without making any changes to it.

Source: Wikipedia