# What is the best Isaac Hayes album?

> Eighteen-minute ballads, an Oscar-winning soundtrack and a quieter late-career comeback all sit on one shelf here. The obvious landmark casts a long shadow, but it isn't the only record with a case.

*By YPB Team · Published October 27, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-isaac-hayes-album*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Hot Buttered Soul** — score 1000/1000
   The 1969 breakthrough of just four long tracks, including an 18-minute 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix', that reinvented soul albums.
2. **Shaft** — score 1000/1000
   The 1971 double-album soundtrack whose theme won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
3. **Truck Turner** — score 667/1000
   Hayes' 1974 funk soundtrack for the blaxploitation film he also starred in.
4. **Joy** — score 667/1000
   A 1973 album built on the slow-burning 16-minute title track, a favourite of sample-hunting producers.
5. **...To Be Continued** — score 439/1000
   Hayes' 1970 follow-up of lush, sprawling ballads featuring his long take on 'The Look of Love'.
6. **Chocolate Chip** — score 439/1000
   The 1975 debut on his own Hot Buttered Soul label, which topped the R&B album chart with a disco-leaning sound.
7. **The Isaac Hayes Movement** — score 439/1000
   A 1970 album of extended orchestral covers, including 'I Stand Accused' and 'Something'.
8. **Black Moses** — score 439/1000
   A 1971 double album with a famous cross-shaped fold-out cover, mixing covers and spoken-word raps.
9. **Don't Let Go** — score 0/1000
   A 1979 disco-era comeback whose title track became a top-20 pop hit.
10. **Presenting Isaac Hayes** — score 0/1000
   Hayes' 1968 debut, a loose late-night jazz session recorded after a Stax party.
11. **Live at the Sahara Tahoe** — score 0/1000
   A 1973 double live album capturing Hayes' big-band stage show at its height.
12. **Branded** — score 0/1000
   Hayes' well-reviewed 1995 return to classic orchestral soul on Pointblank Records.

Tags: music, 70s, funk, soul, isaac hayes