Top singles from the past

30 September 2026

Soul star ISAAC HAYES (1942-2008) released his big hit
THEME FROM SHAFT today, 55 years ago, on 30 Sept 1971.

It was the theme song to the 1971 crime action film Shaft.

It topped the US Singles Chart.

Hayes later explained to MOJO: “As this was my first such undertaking, at the initial meeting I had with the producer and director in New York you could see the anxiety on their faces. They tested me by giving me the opening scene – footage of Shaft coming out of the subway – to take away and see how I got on.

I remembered a guitar line I had in a tune I’d never used, got it off the shelf and had our guitarist play it exactly the same, but with a wah-wah. Then I got our drummer to play 16-note sequences on the hi-hat and we had it. The core rhythm for the tune, the springboard for the whole soundtrack, we’d cut in under two hours.”

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