Includes FREE MP3
version
of this album.
or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
Sell Us Your Item
For up to a $0.30 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Color:
Image not available

To view this video download Flash Player

 

The Best of Santana

SantanaAudio CD
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (120 customer reviews)

Price: $7.00 & FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
  Special Offers Available
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
 : Includes FREE MP3 version of this album.
   Provided by Amazon Digital Services, Inc. Terms and Conditions. Does not apply to gift orders.
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it Tuesday, May 28? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
Complete your purchase to save the MP3 version to Cloud Player.

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
MP3 Music, 16 Songs, 1998 $9.99  
Audio CD, 1998 $7.00  
Audio Cassette, 1998 --  

Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Samples
Song Title Time Price
listen  1. Jingo 4:14$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen  2. Evil Ways 3:54$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen  3. Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen 5:19$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen  4. Oye Como Va 4:16$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen  5. Samba Pa' Ti 4:45$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen  6. She's Not There 4:09$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen  7. No One To Depend On 5:32$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen  8. Open Invitation 4:45$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen  9. Hold On 4:23$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen10. Bella 4:30$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen11. Winning 3:28$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen12. All I Ever Wanted 4:03$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen13. Dance Sister Dance (Baila Mi Hermana) 8:15$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen14. Europa (Earth's Cry, Heaven's Smile) 5:06$1.29  Buy MP3 
listen15. Everybody's Everything 3:30$0.99  Buy MP3 
listen16. Soul Sacrifice 6:35$0.99  Buy MP3 


Amazon's Santana Store

Music

Image of album by Santana

Photos

Image of Santana

Videos

Santana - Guitar Heaven

Biography

When Carlos Santana was first approached by his friend Clive Davis to discuss the record executive’s idea for a new concept album, the legendary guitarist and bandleader was reticent, as is his nature. After all, these ‘guitar classics’, as the project came to be known, were “the Mona Lisas,” in Carlos’ words, “songs done by the daVincis of our time, ... Read more in Amazon's Santana Store

Visit Amazon's Santana Store
for 373 albums, 11 photos, videos, discussions, and more.

Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • Buy a CD or a vinyl record, get a $1 Amazon MP3 Credit. Limit one promotional credit per customer. Here's how (restrictions apply)
  • Includes FREE MP3 version of this album Here's how (restrictions apply)

Frequently Bought Together

The Best of Santana + Ultimate Santana + Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix
Price for all three: $24.36

Buy the selected items together


Product Details

  • Audio CD (March 31, 1998)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Sony
  • ASIN: B0000062FZ
  • Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Music
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (120 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,169 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

There are a couple of Santana best-of compilations out there, and even a few mastersound gold-plated CDs, but this collection is as good a place as any for a newcomer to explore. It contains the band's three essential charters--"Black Magic Woman," "Evil Ways," and "Oye Como Va"--along with some lesser hits. Santana broke barriers, making ethnic-influenced music palatable to the mainstream, but this set doesn't sound like a history lesson. Few bands have ever made better music for driving on a hot summer day, and this CD is ideal for blasting out the windows of your car on a crowded thoroughfare. --Charles R. Cross

Product Description

The definitive single-CD Santana collection, with 16 newly remastered and resplendent tracks taken from their entire career! Includes Evil Ways; Soul Sacrifice; Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen; Oye Como Va; Samba Pa Ti; She's Not There; Jingo; No One to Depend On; Open Invitation; Hold On; Bella; Winning; All I Ever Wanted; Dance Sister Dance; Europa , and Everybody's Everything .

Customer Reviews

Once you Own this you will want to get Santanas albums. Morton  |  17 reviewers made a similar statement
The quick route to listening to Santana should start right here right now. G. J Wiener  |  18 reviewers made a similar statement
In the old days it was so very different, sound quality is great. Fran  |  8 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
49 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
All "greatest hits" and "best of" collections are inherently flawed. Almost universally, such collections leave out a favorite song or include songs that make some fans wonder how "best" or "great" was decided. Lastly, these collections are snapshots in time and will thus neglect later songs. Considering these issues, this collection is an excellent representation of Carlos Santana's career until 1998.

This collection does have two flaws. First, it includes only eight of Santana's 20+ albums. Second, this collection only includes songs that represent Santana's most commercial songs. I suppose the commercialism of this collection is to be expected, given that record companies are most interested in a collection that will sell the most. Thus, there is minimal representation of the jazz fusion music that Santana has performed on so many of his CDs.

Getting past the flaws, the 1969 album "Santana" provides the fast-paced and somewhat psychedelic song "Jingo." This song has a very fast beat with a lot of percussion. "Evil Ways" was also from this album and was a top 10 hit for Santana. The third track from this album is "Soul Sacrifice," a hard driving instrumental that seems to me to be the predecessor to some of Santana's later jazz fusion music. This album hit #4 on the Billboard charts and remained on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 108 weeks.

Santana's next album, "Abraxas," provides three songs, the phenomenal "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen," which reached #4 on the charts, "Oye Como Va," which reached #13 on the charts, and "Samba Pa Ti," a wonderful instrumental. "Abraxas" has been on several lists of the greatest albums of all time, listed at #85 on VH1's list and #205 on "Rolling Stone's" list. The album reached #1 and remained on the charts for 88 weeks.

The third album from Santana was "3," which also reached #1 on the charts and provides two songs for this collection. "No One to Depend On" reached #36 in the charts and "Everybody's Everything," which reached #12. This album was Santana's last #1 album until 1999's "Supernatural."

Santana's music then turned to jazz fusion. The album "Amigos" reached #10 in the charts and provides the longest song in this collection, the eight plus minute "Dance Sister Dance," and the instrumental "Europa." Both these tracks are complex and just a taste of Santana's other, less commercial music.

The song "She's Not There" is one of my favorite Santana songs, which peaked at #27 and is from the #10 album "Moonflower." This song is timeless, but has its roots in the music of the late 60s and early 70s. You can hear a jazz influence in this song even though the song is rock.

The song "Open Invitation" from 1978's "Inner Secrets" is a harder song with lots of guitars. The album reached #27 and was less successful than many of Santana's other albums. This song is a winner and is another of my favorite Santana songs. Yet another fast moving song is "All I Ever Wanted," from the #10 charting album "Marathon." The album was released during the disco era and managed to do well, bucking the disco trend. The song is an excellent song and great for party music.

The song "Winning" is one of the few songs in this collection that veer toward pop. This song reached #17 and was from the #9 charting 1981 album "Zebop!" Though this song is mellow, it is catchy and enjoyable.

Though Santana sounds like Santana, and has no equal, the opening to the song "Hold On" bears some resemblance to music by the Alan Parsons Project. This song reached #15 and is from the 1982 album "Shango," which reached #22. This song is more strongly pop than "Winning," but is yet another excellent song that begs to be listened over and over.

The last album represented in this collection is 1987's "Blues for Salvador," which reached #195 in the charts. The instrumental "Bella" is a gorgeous piece centered about a guitar, and combines elements of jazz, progressive and rock to create a very mellow and enjoyable piece of music.

Santana has been around for more than three decades, and continues to release new material regularly. His music is continually refreshed by changes in lineup and Santana's enjoyment in his art and ability to please fans while pleasing himself. While you could purchase much more music to truly appreciate the depth of Carlo Santana's music, here is an introduction that will certainly demand you to expand your musical horizons. Enjoy!
Was this review helpful to you?
52 of 54 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Substantial One Volume Anthology August 17, 2002
Format:Audio CD
"The Best of Santana" greatly expands on the band's original Greatest Hits package, which only covered the late 60s and early 70s. Filled to capacity with 16 songs, this collection is about as complete as one can hope for in a single volume. It starts out with early classic rock radio staples like "Black Magic Woman," "Evil Ways," "Oye Como Va," and the cover of the Zombies "She's not There." The disc then moves on to more recent Santana hits like the new wave-ish "Winning," and "Hold On" before returning to the early days for some excellent lengthy jams like "Dance Sister Dance" and "Soul Scrifice." The only thing missing is any material from Santana's recent commercial comeback. The disc gets extra credit for not adding on any inferior "new" material like a lot of such packages do.

Overall, an excellent one volume anthology from one of classic rock's brighter stars.

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Discover Santana You Did Not Know May 2, 2000
Format:Audio CD
The Best of Santana released in 1998 served as a premonition something wonderful might happen to a long-careered(more than 30 years)latin rock superstar. Before buying this CD I had known Santana only through the hits Evil Ways and Black Magic Woman."Santana? It's the band which were big thirty years ago". That was the image I had toward Santana. I was wrong. The Best Of Santana told me Santana is a lot more than a collection of 70s hits.

The hits parade Evil Ways, Black Magic Woman and Oye Como Va is great of course. But Santana's allure does not end there. Samba Pa Ti is a great melancholic instrumental. Hold On a great pop music. Winning and All I Ever Wanted. Is It Santana? The band rocks hard! Winning is a very ironic title probably directed toward Neal Schon, who left Santana in 1971 and formed Journey. Europa became superhit in Japan holding the record of the biggest selling single by a non-Japanese artist. If you love Supernatural you will love this band more through this best album.

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars wonderul
Santana greatest songs that made him popular in my day. Good listening on every track, jam and sing along throught the whole cd
Published 13 hours ago by Sandra T. Deweese
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Compilation
If you are going to buy one Santana recording, this would be the one. It highlights most of their great music.
Published 1 day ago by Howard I hendershot
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Music By A Musical Genius (Minus One Song)
The numbers on this CD are some of Santana's all time bests. However, I deducted one star because the recording of "Soul Sacrifice" did not have a long enough drum solo... Read more
Published 10 days ago by Missouri Outlaw
5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME!!!
WELL RE MASTERED, SOUNDS GREAT, HAS PHOTOS AND FAMILY TREE, TAKES ME BACK TO MY YOUTH, DON'T GET BETTER THAN THIS!!!!
Speedy Delivery.
Published 21 days ago by Raymond
5.0 out of 5 stars Great!!
It came in perfect conditions, has great hits in it and my father loves it. All around great disc, recommend it.
Published 1 month ago by Nana
5.0 out of 5 stars Really excellent
As you might expect with a band that has such a long history as Santana, they have a number of "Best Of" and "Greatest Hits" albums. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Kurt A. Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars Santana can play
I only had a small collection of his songs. This came out on sale and had some of the best songs I loved to play. Read more
Published 1 month ago by D. D. Tharp
3.0 out of 5 stars OK not the best
Bought this dic to replace another Santana dic that was damaged....The old album was more to my likeing. Still looking for the old one.
Published 2 months ago by Leona P. Graham
5.0 out of 5 stars great CD
This collection is wonderful, most of my favorites and timeless. If you don't have it get it, money well spent.
Published 2 months ago by nancy ashcraft
5.0 out of 5 stars Among the Great Musicians and timeless originals
The first time I heard this collection, it took me back to the days when original rock 'n roll was uncompromised by electronics and synthesized sounds which are substituted for... Read more
Published 2 months ago by freetextpal
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Forums

There are no discussions about this product yet.
Be the first to discuss this product with the community.
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 




What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?



Look for Similar Items by Category