Santana (1969)

Santana is the debut studio album by American Latin rock band Santana, released on August 22, 1969, by Columbia Records. Over half of the album's length is composed of instrumental music, recorded by what was originally a purely free-form jam band. At the suggestion of manager Bill Graham, the band took to writing more conventional songs for more impact, but managed to retain the essence of improvisation in the music.

The album was destined to be a major release, given a boost by the band's performance at the Woodstock Festival just 6 days before its release to the public. The album's first single, "Jingo", was only a modest performer, spending eight weeks on the chart and reaching #56; however, "Evil Ways", the second single taken from the album, was a U.S. Top 10 hit, reaching #9 and spending thirteen weeks on the chart. The album spent more than two years (108 weeks) on the Billboard Top LPs chart and peaked at #4 in November 1969. It also reached #34 on the UK Albums Chart. It has been mixed and released in both stereo and quadraphonic. The album cover features artwork by Lee Conklin.

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Langdon Winner panned Santana as "a masterpiece of hollow techniques" and "a speed freak's delight - fast, pounding, frantic music with no real content". He compared the music's effect to methedrine, which "gives a high with no meaning", finding Rolie and Santana's playing repetitively unimaginative, amidst a monotony of incompetent rhythms and inconsequential lyrics. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau shared Winner's sentiment in his "unreconstructed opposition to the methedrine school of American music. A lot of noise".

A retrospective Rolling Stone review was more enthusiastic, finding Santana "thrilling ... with ambition, soul and absolute conviction - every moment played straight from the heart". In 2003, the magazine ranked Santana number 150 on their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, moving up to 149 in a 2012 revised list. Colin Larkin deemed it an excellent example of Latin rock in his Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2011).

Personnel

• Carlos Santana – guitar, backing vocals
• David Brown – bass guitar
• Gregg Rolie – lead vocals, Hammond organ, piano
• Michael Shrieve – drums
• Michael Carabello – congas, percussion
• José "Chepito" Areas – timbales, congas, percussion
• Production
• Brent Dangerfield and Santana band – producers
• David Brown – engineer
• Lee Conklin – album cover art

David Rubinson – producer (original first session January 27–29, 1969)