Born in Covington on Aug. 20, 1942, Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. moved to Memphis at an early age, attended Manassas High School, and graduated in 1962. While working in a meatpacking plant and playing piano on club dates with saxophonist Floyd Newman, he was brought to Stax Records as a potential replacement session pianist for Booker T. Jones, and his first session was for Otis Redding in 1964. At Stax, he met aspiring songwriter David Porter, and together they wrote songs for the Bar-Kays, Carla Thomas, the Emotions, Homer Banks, Sam & Dave, the Soul Children, and many others, while also arranging and producing many of the sessions; their work included eight successive Top 20 R&B hits for Sam & Dave, including “You Don't Know,” “Hold on, I'm Coming” and “Soul Man.” Beginning to record under his own name in 1968, Hayes helped reshape R&B and soul albums with Hot Buttered Soul, whose four extended set-piece songs used a full orchestra, and on later albums he explored African-American cultural issues, paving the way for Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye and others to redefine the soul album. His symphonic soul records and dramatic stage presence profoundly influenced soul, funk, disco and rap music, and he also changed the presentation of African-American music by wearing gold chains, fur, leather and sunglasses. In 1971, he began work on the soundtrack for “Shaft,” and its title song helped establish the movie's tempo and edginess; the soundtrack won three Grammy awards, and he became the first African-American to win the Oscar for Best Music, Original Song, while the edited “Theme From Shaft” became a No. 1 pop and R&B single. His role as headliner was crucial to the success of Wattstax, the concert and charity event marking the fifth anniversary of the 1967 Watts riots, but as Stax encountered financial problems and he was personally in debt, he sued to be released from his contract. His later records embraced disco with limited success, and he went on to work as a voice-over artist, actor and radio host, becoming best known on television as the voice of Chef in “South Park.” His work has been heavily sampled, and among many honors he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005. He died in Shelby County on Aug. 10, 2008.