Isaac Hayes “Shaft” soundtrack, released 50 years ago this month. Stax Records. Today, August 20th, also would have been Isaac Hayes’ 79th birthday (b. 1942, d. 2008). The Shaft soundtrack went to # 1, as did the the single “Theme from Shaft.”  The soundtrack spent an astounding 60 weeks on the Billboard album chart, is part of the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry and won a bunch of accolades including Grammys for the Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical and Best Instrumental Arrangement and the film score as a whole won for Best Instrumental Composition Written Specifically For A Motion Picture or for Television. Hayes also won an Oscar for the theme single and was nominated for best Original Dramatic Score. Hayes had originally wanted to star in the film as John Shaft (Richard Roundtree had already been cast) so got a cameo in the movie instead. The soundtrack, written entirely by Hayes specifically for the film, is mostly instrumentals for specific scenes (i.e. “Shaft’s Cab Ride” and “Cafe Regio’s”) except for the title track, the excellent “Do You Thing” which charted in the top 40, and “Soulsville.”