Hot Buttered Soul | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | June 1969 [1] [2] | |||
Recorded | March – May 1969 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 45:24 | |||
Label | Enterprise/Stax | |||
Producer | ||||
Isaac Hayes chronology | ||||
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Singles from Hot Buttered Soul | ||||
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Hot Buttered Soul is the second studio album by American soul musician Isaac Hayes. Released in June 1969, it is recognized as a landmark recording in soul music. [5] [6] Recorded with The Bar-Kays, the album features four lengthy tracks, including a 12-minute version of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David cover "Walk On By" and an almost 19-minute long version of Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix;" both songs were edited significantly and released as a double A-side single in July 1969. [2]
Hayes' 1968 solo debut, Presenting Isaac Hayes , had been a poor seller for the record label Stax Records, and Hayes was about to return to his behind-the-scenes role as a producer and songwriter, when the label suddenly lost its entire back catalog after splitting with Atlantic Records in May 1968. [7]
Stax executive Al Bell decided to release an almost-instant back catalog of 27 albums and 30 singles at once, and ordered all of Stax's artists to record new material, encouraging some of Stax's prominent creative staff, including Hayes and guitarist Steve Cropper, to record solo albums. [7]
After feeling burned by the retail and creative flop of his first album, Hayes told Bell that he would not record a follow-up or any other album unless he was granted complete creative control. Since Bell had encouraged Hayes to record Presenting... in the first place, he readily agreed. [7]
Produced by Al Bell with Allen Jones and Marvell Thomas, the record was tracked by engineer Terry Manning at the Ardent Studios location on National Street in Memphis. The Bar-Kays were the tracking band, supplemented by pianist and co-producer Marvell Thomas (son of Rufus Thomas). Isaac Hayes played Hammond organ and sang the vocals live while conducting the tracking band at the same time. Much of the later production was done as part of the package of products brought to Detroit by producer Don Davis to expedite the production process. The strings and horns were arranged by Detroit arranger Johnny Allen and were recorded at United Sound Studios by engineer Ed Wolfrum with vocals and final mix at Tera Shirma by engineer Russ Terrana. [7] The producers were looking for a sweeping orchestral sound that would enhance the rhythm tracks. The pre-delay reverberation technique, recorded in part by Terry Manning on the tracking session, had been used at Artie Fields productions in Detroit in late 1950s, and at Columbia Records; it was also used by Wolfrum and others for numerous productions and commercials previous and after the release of this project including the Marvin Gaye What's Going On project, with orchestration also recorded at United. Russ Terrana went on to the engineering staff of Motown Records and was responsible for the recording and mixing of many hits on that label. [7]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [5] |
Robert Christgau | C [8] |
BBC | (favourable) [9] |
MusicHound Lounge | [10] |
Paste | 9.7/10 [11] |
Pitchfork Media | 9.2/10 [12] |
Rhapsody | favorable [13] |
Rolling Stone | [14] |
Stereo Review | (favourable) [15] |
The album was released in June 1969 and peaked at number 1 on the top R&B chart, and at number 8 on the Billboard 200 . [1] [16] The edited single version of Walk On By reached #30 on the Billboard Pop Charts, as well as the edited single version of By The Time I Get To Phoenix reached #37 on the Billboard Pop Charts.
Contemporary and retrospective reviews of the album were highly positive. AllMusic ranks Hot Buttered Soul as one of the best records of Hayes's career, perhaps second only to 1971's Black Moses , and said the album pioneered new developments in R&B music for the 1970s. [5] In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 373 in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. [17]
American punk rock musician Henry Rollins has frequently referred to Hot Buttered Soul as one of his favorite albums. [18] [19] Rollins interviewed Hayes for his book Do I Come Here Often? [20]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Walk On By" | Burt Bacharach, Hal David | 12:03 |
2. | "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" | Isaac Hayes, Alvertis Isbell | 9:38 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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3. | "One Woman" | Charles Chalmers, Sandra Rhodes | 5:10 |
4. | "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" | Jimmy Webb | 18:42 |
The Bar-Kays:
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United States (RIAA) [22] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Funkadelic is the debut album by the American funk rock band Funkadelic, released in 1970 on Westbound Records.
Booker T. & the M.G.'s were an American instrumental, R&B, and funk band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1962. The band is considered influential in shaping the sound of Southern soul and Memphis soul. The original members of the group were Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper (guitar), Lewie Steinberg (bass), and Al Jackson Jr. (drums). In the 1960s, as members of the Mar-Keys, the rotating slate of musicians that served as the house band of Stax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists including Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, and Albert King. They also released instrumental records under their own name, including the 1962 hit single "Green Onions". As originators of the unique Stax sound, the group was one of the most prolific, respected, and imitated of its era.
Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. was an American singer, actor, songwriter, and composer. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a session musician and record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the mid-1960s. Hayes and Porter were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of writing scores of songs for themselves, the duo Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, and others. In 2002, Hayes was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in September 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records.
Carla Venita Thomas is an American singer, who is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis Soul. She is best known for her 1960s recordings for Atlantic and Stax including the hits "Gee Whiz " (1960), "B-A-B-Y" (1966) and "Tramp" (1967), a duet with Otis Redding. She is the daughter of Rufus Thomas.
Enterprise Records was started in 1967 as a sub-label of Stax Records. It's best-known recording artist during its existence was Isaac Hayes, who secured a #1 R&B and pop crossover smash in 1971 with the soundtrack hit "Theme from Shaft". In addition to Isaac Hayes, Big Ben Atkins, Cliff Cochran, Connie Eaton, Maynard Ferguson, Little Sonny, O.B. McClinton, Eric Mercury and David Porter also recorded for the label.
The Soul Children was an American vocal group who recorded soul music for Stax Records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They had three top 10 hits on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart – "The Sweeter He Is" (1969), "Hearsay" (1972), and "I'll Be the Other Woman" (1973) – all of which crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100.
The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, simply referred to as Soul Ballads or Sings Soul Ballads, is the second studio album by American soul singer-songwriter Otis Redding, released in 1965. The album was one of the first issued by Volt Records, a sub-label of Stax Records, and Redding's first on the new label. Like Redding's debut Pain in My Heart (1964), Soul Ballads features both soul classics and originals written by Redding and other Stax Records recording artists. The recording sessions took place at the Stax studios in Memphis. The album features a stereo mix made by engineer Tom Dowd, replacing the early mono mix.
Shaft is a double album by Isaac Hayes, recorded for Stax Records' Enterprise label as the soundtrack LP for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1971 blaxploitation film Shaft. The album mostly consists of instrumentals composed by Hayes as score for the film. Three vocal selections are included: "Soulsville", "Do Your Thing", and "Theme from Shaft". A commercial and critical success, Shaft is Hayes' best-known work and the best-selling LP ever released on a Stax label.
"Soul Man" is a 1967 song written and composed by Isaac Hayes and David Porter, first successful as a number 2 hit single by Atlantic Records soul duo Sam & Dave, which consisted of Samuel "Sam" Moore and David "Dave" Prater. In 2019, "Soul Man" was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress. It was No. 463 in "Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" by Rolling Stone in 2010 and No. 458 in 2004.
"By the Time I Get to Phoenix" is a song written by Jimmy Webb. Originally recorded by Johnny Rivers in 1965, it was reinterpreted by American country music singer Glen Campbell on his album of the same name. Released on Capitol Records in 1967, Campbell's version topped RPM's Canada Country Tracks, reached number two on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart, and won two awards at the 10th Annual Grammys. Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) named it the third most performed song from 1940 to 1990. The song was ranked number 20 on BMI's Top 100 Songs of the Century. Frank Sinatra called it "the greatest torch song ever written." It was No. 450 on Rolling Stone magazine's Top 500 Songs of All Time.
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Presenting Isaac Hayes is the debut studio album by American soul musician Isaac Hayes. The album was released in 1968, by Enterprise and Atlantic Records. The LP was the first release on Stax Records' Enterprise label; Hayes had for several years served as one of Stax's key songwriters, producers, and studio musicians.
...To Be Continued is the fourth studio album by American soul musician Isaac Hayes, issued in 1970 on Stax Records' Enterprise label. The LP includes Hayes' cover of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David composition "The Look of Love", which was issued as a single in an edited form, peaking at #79 on the Billboard Hot 100. Hayes had covered Bacharach/David songs on his previous albums Hot Buttered Soul and The Isaac Hayes Movement.
Hold On, I'm Comin' is the 1966 debut album by Atlantic Records soul duo Sam & Dave, issued on the Atlantic-distributed Stax label in 1966.
The Isaac Hayes Movement is the third studio album by the American soul musician Isaac Hayes. Released in 1970, it was the follow-up to Hot Buttered Soul, Hayes' landmark 1969 album. Marvell Thomas had come up with "The Isaac Hayes Movement" as a name for Hayes' backup ensemble. He modeled the name after the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Similar in structure to Hot Buttered Soul, The Isaac Hayes Movement features only four long tracks, all with meticulous, complex and heavily orchestrated arrangements. However, unlike the previous album, this time all four songs are reworked covers of others' material. This includes Jerry Butler's "I Stand Accused", which features a nearly five-minute long spoken intro that precedes the actual song, and The Beatles' "Something", which features violin soloing by John Blair. The other two songs included on the album were the Bacharach-David song "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" and Chalmers and Rhodes' "One Big Unhappy Family".
Dale Ossman Warren was an American musician, who was best known for his work as an arranger for Motown Records in the early 1960s, and later for the Stax label where he worked with Isaac Hayes among many others. He was also primarily responsible for writing, arranging and producing the influential 1973 funk concept album Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth by 24-Carat Black.
Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul, or simply Dictionary of Soul, is the fifth studio album by American soul singer-songwriter Otis Redding and his last solo studio album released before his death. The successful Otis Blue and the following performance at Whisky a Go Go led to his rising fame across the United States. The first side of the album mainly contains cover versions, and the second songs mainly written by Redding.
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