Isaac Hayes' version of "Walk on By" appeared on his landmark 1969 album Hot Buttered Soul. While Dionne Warwick's 1964 original was a tight, three-minute pop single, Hayes deconstructed it into a sprawling twelve-minute orchestral soul epic. The arrangement builds slowly from a sparse, atmospheric opening into a full orchestral crescendo, with Hayes' deep baritone and wah-wah guitar weaving through lush string arrangements.

The extended intro and breakdown sections gave hip-hop producers a wealth of material. The track's cinematic quality — moody, dramatic, richly textured — made it ideal for producers seeking a darker, more atmospheric sound. Portishead famously sampled it for "Glory Box," helping launch the trip-hop genre, while Wu-Tang Clan and Tricky also drew from its deep well of sounds.

Hayes' reimagining demonstrated that soul music could be expansive and experimental. The idea that you could take a simple song and rebuild it into something epic foreshadowed the production approach that RZA, DJ Premier, and Madlib would bring to sample-based music decades later.