The LP was the first release on Stax Records' Enterprise label; Hayes had for several years served as one of Stax's key songwriters, producers, and studio musicians.

Recorded to appease Stax vice president Alvertis Isbell (Al Bell),[3] Presenting features Hayes recording with Booker T. & the MGs members Al Jackson, Jr. and Donald "Duck" Dunn as a jazz trio.

Both the 45 and the album under-performed, and Hayes would only continue his recording career after Stax lost its entire back catalog to Atlantic Records during the process of breaking away from Atlantic.

The lack of material necessitated all Stax artists — Hayes included — to record albums for release, resulting in Hayes' successful and groundbreaking Hot Buttered Soul (1969).

[3] Following Hayes' success with Hot Buttered Soul, in 1971 Black Moses and the Shaft soundtrack, Atlantic reissued Presenting Isaac Hayes under the title In the Beginning.