Santana: Santana [COLUMBIA / LEGACY]

Why you'll love it

This EU pressing puts the debut on heavyweight 180g vinyl. The album reached No. 4 on the Billboard chart, stayed there for 108 weeks and went double platinum, with "Evil Ways" a top 10 single.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Most bands build up to the big stage. Santana did it backwards: they played Woodstock in August 1969, and the album turned up in shops six days later, so a good chunk of America had heard them before anyone could buy the record. It grew out of a free-form San Francisco jam band, and more than half of it is instrumental.

Carlos Santana's singing guitar sits on top of a ferocious rhythm machine: Shrieve on drums, David Brown on bass, Michael Carabello on congas and José "Chepito" Areas on timbales, with Gregg Rolie on Hammond organ and lead vocals. Manager Bill Graham nudged them toward tighter songs, which gave us the slinky "Evil Ways" and the chant-driven "Jingo," while "Waiting" and the closing "Soul Sacrifice" let the percussion off the leash. The band produced it with Brent Dangerfield at Pacific Recording in San Mateo, and Lee Conklin drew the cover art.

Rolling Stone later put it on its list of the 500 greatest albums, and it moved up a place when the list was revised in 2012. Playing the world's most famous festival the week before your debut arrives is a promotional plan no marketing department has managed to repeat.

Also at Kops: more Santana on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Columbia / Legacy (cat# 88875194281), a reissue of the 1969 album.