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- Date Released: June 11, 1991
- Genre: Hip-Hop/R&B
- Style: Soul, Soul/R&B
- Label: Fantasy / Stax
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We Say...
The kids might know him best as Chef from South Park, but back in the day Isaac Hayes reigned as Black Moses: a sexy soul daddy with a mellifluous basso profundo. A former staff writer (with ex-partner David Porter) for the legendary R&B label Stax, Hayes went solo in the '70s, and with his glistening shaved head, bare chest wrapped in chains and plush and heavily orchestrated tracks, he electrified audiences. On vinyl Hayes was no joke either, and his musicianship and deliberately badass delivery (somewhere a young Samuel L. Jackson was listening to the wah-wah guitars and take-no-prisoners vibe of "Shaft" and taking notes) elevated Top 40 hits into epics of plush, pimpadelic proportions.
In Hayes' hands, Burt Bacharach's longing "Walk On By" becomes a mournful, moody, string-laden manifesto. Equally cinematic is Hayes' monumental reworking of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," which, thanks to a classic, slow-burning spoken-word intro, is transformed from a wistful, gentle love song to something approaching an autobiographical opus that all but vibrates with passion. Even a relatively lighthearted take on Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" is laced with a determined drama that, like most of Hayes' music, puts the x in extra. -
They Say...
One of the best-available Isaac Hayes compilation, Greatest Hit Singles bypasses a couple of his later disco hits, but the result is a more unified sound that helps illustrate why Hayes was so important to the development of '70s soul. Of course, a major part of his legacy consists of the epic-length suites that helped usher R&B into the album age, and that facet of his work is necessarily underrepresented here. But as a concise, easily digestible introduction to Hayes' work, Greatest Hit Singles is indispensable. Hayes may have been a master of mood and flow when he crafted his albums, but his innovative, slow-building style also lent itself to indulgence. Greatest Hit Singles presents just what the title suggests -- the single versions of these songs, which prune away Hayes' excesses and boil his core sound down to the bare essentials. Even if this doesn't capture the full scope of his talents, it still gives a sense of Hayes' genius as an arranger and the groundwork he laid for the R&B love-man archetype. There's only one of his trademark "raps" here, on "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," which is slimmed down to seven minutes. Everything else clocks in under five, which usually involves heavy editing. Oddly, for one of the most accomplished soul songwriters of the '60s, Hayes' solo hits tended to be covers; only four of the 12 tracks here are Hayes originals, and two of those were movie themes. His vision as a solo artist lay more in the elaborate presentation and, often, reimagination of his repertoire. If you want to experience the full-length versions, see Stax's two volumes of The Best of Isaac Hayes, or buy the original albums. But for a more concentrated dose of Hayes at his best, Greatest Hit Singles is hard to beat.
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| 01. |  |
By the Time I Get to Phoenix |
7:06 |
|
| 02. | |
Walk On By |
4:35 |
|
| 03. | |
I Stand Accused |
4:04 |
|
| 04. | |
The Look of Love |
3:20 |
|
| 05. | |
Never Can Say Goodbye |
3:39 |
|
| 06. | |
Theme From "Shaft" |
3:19 |
|
| 07. | |
Do Your Thing |
3:17 |
|
| 08. | |
Let's Stay Together |
3:32 |
|
| 09. | |
Ain't That Loving You (For More Reasons Than One) |
4:21 |
|
| 10. | |
Theme From "The Men" |
3:59 |
|
| 11. | |
(If Loving You is Wrong) I Don't Want to be Right |
4:46 |
|
| 12. | |
Joy (Part 1) |
4:36 |
|
12 Total Tracks, 50:34 Total Length
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Credits
- Isaac Hayes - Piano // Isaac Hayes - Keyboards // Isaac Hayes - Vocals // Isaac Hayes - Main Performer // David Porter - Performer // David Porter - ? // Phil Carroll - Artwork // Joe Tarantino - Digital Remastering
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