The album peaked at number one on The Billboard 200 chart, and spent sixty weeks on the chart. It took the top position on the Top R&B Albums chart for 14 weeks. Both “Theme from Shaft” and “Do Your Thing” became Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with the former peaking at number one.

At the 1972 Grammy Awards, “Theme from Shaft” won the awards for Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical and Best Instrumental Arrangement. The film score as a whole won for Best Instrumental Composition Written Specifically For A Motion Picture or for Television. The National Association of Television and Radio Announcers gave Shaft its Album of the Year award.

At the Academy Awards that year, Hayes became the first African-American to win an Oscar for a non-acting category when “Theme from Shaft” won the award for Best Original Song. Isaac Hayes was nominated for Original Dramatic Score as well, losing to Michel Legrand for the score to Summer of ’42.

A commercial and critical success, Shaft is Hayes’ best-known work and the best-selling LP ever released on a Stax label. In 2014, the album was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” (Source: Wikipedia)

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A MCRFB Note: This week, ‘Theme from Shaft,’ the single, began its ascent on the Detroit radio dial. The single charted on the CKLW Big 30 survey at #25, September 21, 1971. The single debuted at #29 on the WKNR Music Guide, September 20, 1971.