Isaac Hayes's first album, Presenting Isaac Hayes, was a low-budget, jazz-imbued affair recorded on the spur of the moment with only bass and drums accompanying his piano and voice. Hot Buttered Soul, his second album, offered something altogether different: A husky, very masculine baritone rapping and crooning against a massive backdrop of strings and brass from the Memphis Symphony and the solid grooves of the Bar-Kays. With this 1969 release, made up of four long tracks, Hayes revolutionized African-American popular music by leading it out of the era of the three-minute single and into concept album territory. A double-sided single of edited versions of "Walk on By" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" sold fairly well, but fans clamored for the full-length treatments and turned Hot Buttered Soul into a smash-the first-ever gold album for Stax Records.
