The Best of Santana

Santana

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 31, 1998)
• Original Release Date: March 31, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000062FZ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,742 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  #79 in	Music > Rock > Blues Rock

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
Slide-pack edition of this release, a no-frills CD packaging featuring an outer slipcase with the original cover artwork and an inner 'slider' including a CD. There is no CD booklet in this package. The Best of Santana features 16 tracks from Carlos and the boys' most successful and prolific period up through the '70s. Features 'Jingo', 'Evil Ways', 'Black Magic Woman' and many more. Sony/BMG. 2007. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Substantial One Volume Anthology, August 17, 2002

By	Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"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.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good tracks but terrible remixing!, January 29, 2000

By	Paul Barlow (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This cd represents some of Santana's finest songs, however, the guys who did the remastering/remixing should be fired! they cranked up the bass on every song and left almost no treble or any midrange at all, every song sounds muddy and flat as if you had placed a cardboard box between your ear and the speakers. If you're a new Santana fan do yourself a favour and just buy some of the original albums these tracks are from, in fact most of these tracks are on the 1995 box set called "Dance of the Rainbow Serpent", so spend a few more bucks and get that, then you'll only need about three or four other cd's to get the rest of the tracks from their original albums, all of which have better sound than this best of cd.

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Discover Santana You Did Not Know, May 2, 2000

By	susumu-5 (Japan) - See all my reviews

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.