Isaac Hayes won an Academy Award for the theme song to which 1971 film? He won for "Theme from Shaft," the signature song of the 1971 film Shaft. The recording helped establish a new sound for action-movie music by combining orchestral drama with soul, funk, and a forceful spoken introduction.
Hayes wrote, recorded, and produced the theme for MGM’s blaxploitation film, which starred Richard Roundtree as private detective John Shaft. The song was released on Stax Records’ Enterprise label after the soundtrack and became an unexpected commercial success. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was also a major R&B hit.
At the 44th Academy Awards in 1972, "Theme from Shaft" won Best Original Song. Hayes became the first African American to win an Academy Award in a non-acting category and the first person to win that songwriting award for both writing and performing the winning song. The film title is sometimes confused with Hayes’s later work on the 2000 Shaft remake, but the historic Oscar recognized the original 1971 theme.