Customer Reviews

Ultimate Collection

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There have been many Santana anthologies over the last ten years (Holland's Definitive Collection, France's Best of Santana, an import of the best of the instrumentals, the US had Greatest Hits, and now there is a Best of Santana).

However, to help one weed through the confusing titles, this 3-CD import and the US 1998 Best of are the pinnacle collections.

This anthology presents single edits [Black Magic Woman, Soul Sacrifice (yes, there is an edit to that), Hold On, Aqua Marine, etc.] that cover everything from 1969's Santana up to 1998's Live at the Fillmore '68.

All the hits are included except for Let It Shine from Amigos, and anything from the solo LP Blues For Salvador.

Other than that this is very comprehensive. One though notices that this treats all the albums equally. So essential albums such as Abraxas and Caravanserai have less tracks from them than Inner Secrets which is clearly a weaker piece of work.

Still, fans should enjoy this collection, and considering the cheap price there's plenty of latin bang for the buck!

The single US best-of is a more concise and exciting collection and one would have enjoyed the liner notes on this if they were in English, but don't let that deter you from chasing this one down!

Do not let this title confuse you. This is not the three CD Holland import released a couple of years ago. This is a UK CD with slighly different reshuffled tracks on only two CD's. The cover is similar to the US Best of Santana (only in blue) right down to the liner notes, family tree, and album sources for the songs.

Good news: the packaging compliments the domestic single disc. More tracks are included from Santana's prime period (Se A Cabo from Abraxas, Fuente Del Ritmo from Caravanserai (always a plus to have more of this album's tracks), I Love You Much Too Much from Zebop (the best track on that album), and Blues For Salvador. Black Magic Woman has Gypsy Queen (I can't hear it any other way!)

That ends the good news. Once again single edits are the criteria. Aqua Marine, Dance Little Sister, Soul Sacrifice, Hold On (which has a longer fade than on the US Best-of, but has its intro cut) are all edited. At least You Know That I Love You is intact (unlike the dutch import of the same name). One would like to see a couple of pointless inclusions removed to make room for full length songs (like How Long, or Para Los Rumberos an odd choice from III).

The liner notes are inaccurate. Dance Little Sister, and Europa are not from Moonflower but from Amigos, Para Los Rumberos is not from Abraxas. Gregg Rolie, and Carlos Santana oversaw the US best-of, they should have oversaw this!

I assume the tracks are remastered, but frequently with Sony UK they never have it in writing on the CD. Of the two same name imports, this is a better assembled collection, just be aware of the shortcomings when you buy it!

A great hits CD! A few of the songs though are the shorter radio versions, so that [is bad], but overall it has most of the songs I like. I had never heard "Samba Pa Ti" from the Lotus album and it is a great jazz-rock song. I will now have to buy Lotus for my collection. It also has "Them Changes" with Buddy Miles. As with every greatest hits CD, the record company leaves off a few hits just to get you to buy another version in the future, but this is a real nice package of his hits. The songs are remastered too. And..good news. No songs from his last two CD turkeys when he sold out to the rap music (or [bad] music as I call it) and pop music crowd! 11/27/02.

I'll keep this short and sweet... For the Ultimate Santana experience all you need are 3 albums... The First Three: Santana; Abraxas and Santana 3... everything after that is downhill, in my opinion anyway... "Smooth" was absolutely commercial and, the entire album for that matter, was just another "smooth" Clive Davis fabrication... Carlos... please come back home and record an album like the first 3 you recorded... all this other stuff is just filler...

I know Santana from his very beginning and, in my opinion, really essential in Santana's records are the first three albums plus Supernatural. I really don't like the other albums, even the compilations are week because his most known songs are so well beaten that even his fans get bored with them. But this compilation really surprised me, showing another side of Santana's work with other musicians, the same model that gave birth to the Supernatural album, a landmark in music for the last decade.
The minority of the tracks was extracted from the original albums, the others are live sessions played with a very good vibration. Another highlight in this album: Santana and friend's playing other musician's classics, like "She's not there", a sensational track from The Zoombies, "Changes" from Hendrix, "Well alright" from Traffic and others.
I recommend this album even if you are not a Santana's fan. It's good music after all, good to hear while driving, working on your computer or at a barbecue party, in your mp3 player or in a superb sound system at home.