This is the theme song to the 1971 movie Shaft, starring Richard Roundtree as a Harlem detective hired by a mob boss to find his kidnapped daughter. Written, produced and arranged by Hayes, the song establishes Shaft as one bad mother who thrives on danger and doesn't give up. He's also "a sex machine to all the chicks," making him sort of a black James Bond. Thanks in large part to the song, it became an iconic character.
This won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement and an Oscar for Best Original Score. The Oscar win made Hayes the first African-American to win an Academy Award in a composer category.
Hayes was a songwriter for Stax records before he became a successful recording artist. He wrote some hits for Sam & Dave, including "Soul Man" and "Hold On I'm Coming." Hayes explained in an interview with National Public Radio: "The character Shaft was explained to me: a relentless character always on the prowl, always on the move. I had to create something to denote that. Otis Redding's 'Try A Little Tenderness,' I had a hand in arranging that. At the end, Al Jackson was doing some stuff on a hi-hat, and I thought if I sustained that kind of thing on a hi-hat, it would give a relentless, dramatic effect, and it worked."
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