Isaac Hayes Albums Ranked
Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, songwriter, actor, and producer. Hayes was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a session musician and record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the mid-1960s. Hayes and Porter were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of writing scores of songs for themselves, the duo Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, and others. In 2002, Hayes was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here are all of Isaac Hayes albums ranked.
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7. Branded (1995)
“Branded” is a cool collection of up-tempo tracks and mellow ballads. Mixing his traditional and passionate love songs (such tracks as “Thanks to the Fool,” and “Soulsville,” a remake of his classic from “Shaft”) with funky jams (a reworking of “Summer in the City” and “I’ll Do Anything (To Turn You On,” to name a few), Hayes shows what made him an icon of the ’70s and ’80s and a sought after “voice” frequently heard today.”
6. The Isaac Hayes Movement (1970)
“The album’s high point is definitely Isaac’s superb rendition of Jerry Butler’s “I Stand Accused” but the three other songs (especially “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself” and “Something”) straddle the fence between mundane and merely average. This album was by no means disastrous but it is somewhat disappointing in comparison to “Hot Buttered Soul”, “Black Moses”, “To Be Continued” and “Joy”.”
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5. Live At The Sahara Tahoe (1973)
“The tunes on this album are funky as you’d expect in any Memphis Shoals production, yet represent a new wave of black music. Then hitmaker Isaac Hayes combines the bluesy sensuality of Arthur Prysock, the gutbucket of STAX, with a raw mixture of funk and pop laden with strings, vibraphone and other orchestrations. It is distinctly Hayes!”
4. Shaft (1971)
“A superb soundtrack album. Certainly better than the film, although it is fun, the music is superb. Textured and atmospheric it drips New York with just the right amount of attitude. The title track is brilliantly humorous and the epic Do your thing is absolutely jaw-dropping. One of the best soundtrack albums’s ever.”
3. …To Be Continued (1970)
“This album is a must for any guy who has had his heart broken- and will mean a lot, like it did for me. Not dissimilar to Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ – another timeless masterpiece focusing on love. The title ‘To Be Continued’ is perhaps a message that there is hope after a bad break up as the story doesn’t end there, it continues.”
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2. Black Moses (1971)
“The whole album is incredible and total genius. One of my favorite tracks is “Close To You”, like many of his songs, he takes you on this crazy journey where you can’t help but feel the song flowing through your veins then you feel him releasing you and just when you think the song is over, he picks you back up and gives you more and then again, you feel like it’s almost over and once again he’s pulling you back and that just keeps going on for what seems like forever. It’s amazing!”
1. Hot Buttered Soul (1969)
“The finest example of the importance of creative freedom. When Stax broke with Atlantic Records in 1968 and lost her entire back catalog, Hayes was compelled to make a studio album. He wasn’t very happy too; his debut album “Presenting Isaac Hayes” failed to chart and Hayes had decided to stay in the background as a songwriter and session musician. When Al Bell, record executive for Stax, persuaded Hayes to record a new album, Hayes demanded total creative freedom.”
