"In mid-1973, Hayes was on top of the world. He had creative control over his music, a favorable royalty rate, was able to tour the world for big bucks, and had more fancy cars than he could drive. His grandma was well taken care of. But he still had an itch he wanted to scratch: He wanted to act. He never got the opportunity to with 'Shaft' — though he appeared in a cameo role — and he felt like he would prove to be great at it, just like he had with organ playing, songwriting, and film scoring. He’d get his chance in late 1973 and 1974. Twice, in fact. For the soundtrack for 'Tough Guys,' Hayes didn’t have the backing of MGM to fly out to L.A. to work with their orchestra. Instead, he kept close to home, working with the group that laid down strings when he needed them on his own LPs: The Memphis Symphony Orchestra. 'Tough Guys,' unlike 'Shaft,' features virtually no singing from Hayes; with the exception of him saying a few lines on ‘Title Theme ‘Three Tough Guys,’’ the only sounds you hear are Hayes’ swelling orchestration and the funky rhythmic backing of his band, The Movement."