Santana is an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1966 by Mexican American guitarist and songwriter Carlos Santana. The band has undergone multiple recording and performing line-ups in its history, with Carlos Santana the only consistent member. After their first audition, performing with Family Dog at the Avalon Ballroom in the late summer of 1967, concert promoter Chet Helms told the band that they could not achieve success playing Latin-infused rock and suggested Carlos keep his day job as a dishwasher at Tick Tock’s Drive-In.
By 1969, the band had secured a record deal with Columbia Records and Bill Graham as manager. . That May, the band entered Pacific Recording Studios in California and recorded their debut album, Santana. Composed mostly of instrumental rock tracks, the album contains their first two singles, “Jingo” and “Evil Ways”. To promote their debut album Graham, who was asked to help organise the upcoming Woodstock festival, agreed to on the condition that Santana would be added to the bill. Santana performed a 45-minute set in the afternoon of August 16, the second day. The performance launched the group to international fame, and the album, released in August 1969, peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard. “Evil Ways” went to No. 9 on the Billboard.
In April 1970, Santana returned to the studio to record its second album, Abraxas was released in September 1970 and rose to number 1 on the US Billboard. The single, a reworking of “Black Magic Woman” by Fleetwood Mac, peaked at No. 4 in the US Billboard Album Chart. The instrumental, “Samba Pa Ti” (“Samba for You”), was written by Santana after he saw a jazz saxophonist performing in the street outside his apartment.
By 1971, the group were still struggling to maintain a strong musical direction. From January to July they recorded Santana III. Released in September 1971, the album also reached number 1 on the US Billboard 200. The fourth album, Caravanserai (1972), marked a number of line-up changes. It debuted at number 8 on the pop charts, despite not spawning a hit single.
13 months after Caravanserai, Santana released Welcome. Welcome was the first of four consecutive albums to achieve gold certification, as opposed to the previous four, which all at least reached platinum status. The album peaked at number 25 on the Billboard 200, the lowest of the band’s career so far. The next few albums contained a more experimental style than their previous work, beginning with Borboletta, which fared arguably worse than its predecessor, despite climbing five spots higher on the Billboard album charts in the US.
Moonflower, released in 1977. The album was possibly the most successful since Santana III, achieving 2x platinum in the US, and being the first album since 1974’s Borboletta, to break the top 10 in the UK. It was characterized by a stylistic shift for the band, as it contained heavier influences from the more conventional sound of the group’s early work, while still maintaining the experimental sound of their last few albums.
The group waited another three years to release the follow-up, the longest break for them so far. 1985’s Beyond Appearances was a commercial failure, and their first album not to achieve gold certification. Their following three releases all continued this commercial decline, with the last of these failing to break the Billboard top 100. In the midst of this commercial pitfall, the band stopped recording material for an unprecedented seven years but continued to tour.
In 1998, Santana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The following year, their album Supernatural (1999) debuted at number 19 on the Billboard 200 and reached No. 1 after eighteen weeks. Also reaching No. 1 were two singles: “Smooth”, recorded with Rob Thomas, and “Maria Maria”. The album was certified platinum 15 times by the RIAA and sold 30 million copies worldwide. Santana’s previous number one album had been in 1971. According to Guinness World Records, this is the longest gap between number one albums. Supernatural won nine Grammy Awards, including the award for Album of the Year.
The follow-up to Supernatural came three years later and was highly anticipated by international media and fans alike. On October 22, 2002, Shaman was released worldwide. Although it initially sold briskly (298,973 copies in the US in its first week) and debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200, the album’s appeal quickly wore off and it soon slid down the charts. Despite this, it went on to sell 2x platinum in the US, and achieved platinum status in several other countries including Australia. The first single released from the album, “The Game of Love”, which featured vocals from Michelle Branch, debuted at number 5 on the Hot 100.
