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1969 - November: Santana ”Santana”
One of the biggest, longest running, and commercially successful bands of the rock era was founded by Carlos Santana, the only consistent member of the band throughout the years. That band of course is simply named Santana, and their debut album was also known as Santana.
Santana has always been about fusion, and you get that with this debut as well. There's jazz, Latin, calypso, funk, and soul in there, all held together by the guitar virtuosity of Mexican-American Carlos Santana. The debut album provides a lot of opportunity to take in Santana's guitar work with about half the songs being instrumentals. Santana came to prominence with their live shows, and of course would be propelled to the top with their concert at Woodstock.
The lineup for this iteration of Santana would of course include Carlos Santana on guitar and backing vocals. Greg Rolie would be on lead vocals and piano, as Carlos Santana usually had someone else on lead vocals in all the different iterations of his band. Rolie would go on to found the band Journey, as would a future Santana member, Neal Schon. Other band members were David Brown on bass, Michael Schrieve on drums, Michael Carabello, Jose "Chepito" Areas, and Marcus Malone on congas and percussion.
The band was formed in San Francisco in 1966 as the Santana Blues Band. Promoter Chet Helms told the band that they couldn't be successful with Latin-infused rock, and recommended that Santana "keep his day job" as a dishwasher at Tick Tock's Drive-In. Time would prove how wrong Helms' advice was. Santana has sold over 43 million albums in the US, and perhaps 100 million worldwide.
Friend of the show Vann Mathis joins us for this podcast.
Soul Sacrifice
If you have seen the documentary about the August 1969 Woodstock music festival you may have heard this instrumental song. This one had three screens projecting, one of the band and the other two scanning people at the concert.
Persuasion
A deeper cut sung by frontman and keyboardist Greg Rolie about a woman that his "put a spell" on a guy, and he can't think of anyone but her. "Like the devil in disguise, something about you baby. You're one, you're one of a kind."
Savor
This is a hard driving instrumental. One thing you get from Santana other than the excellent guitar riffs is a lot of congas.
Evil Ways
This was Santana's second single the band's first hit, topping out at number 9 on the Billboard charts. This song was a cover originally recorded by jazz percussionist Willy Bobo in 1967. It has a great guitar solo.
ENTERTAINMENT TRACK:
The theme from the television series “Sesame Street”
The Sesame Street Kids sing this well-known children's television theme which debuted in November of 1969.
STAFF PICKS:
Sugar, Sugar by The Archies
Brian's staff pick was performed by the cartoon band “The Archies.” Don Kirshner heard it and decided that it needed to be released. After persuading radio stations to play it, the song took off and became the biggest single hit of the year.
Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley
Mark James wrote this and recorded it in 1968, but Elvis would make it successful in 1969. It was his 18th and last number 1 single. The song itself is inspired by James' relationship with his first wife. He still had feelings for his childhood girlfriend, and his wife had suspicions about that.
Undun by The Guess Who
Rob's staff pick is from Winnipeg's own The Guess Who. Randy Bachman wrote this about a girl he dated who went into a coma after doing drugs. It is Bachman's favorite song done with the band. It was actually the B-side of a song called “Laughing.”
Space Cowboy by the Steve Miller Band
Wayne finishes us off with a song from Steve Miller's third album, Brave New World. It has a psychedelic feel. The main guitar riff borrows heavily from "Lady Madonna" by the Beatles. Steve Miller played at the Monterrey Pops Festival.
INSTRUMENTAL/COMEDY TRACK:
Yakety Sax From The Benny Hill Show
The song was first used on The Benny Hill Show in November 1969. It was composed by James Q. “Spider” Rich and Boots Randolph.
Thanks for listening to “What the Riff?!?”
NOTE: To adjust the loudness of the music or voices, you may adjust the balance on your device. VOICES are stronger in the LEFT channel, and MUSIC is stronger on the RIGHT channel.
Please follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/whattheriffpodcast/, and message or email us with what you'd like to hear, what you think of the show, and any rock-worthy memes we can share.
Of course we'd love for you to rate the show in your podcast platform!
**NOTE: What the Riff?!? does not own the rights to any of these songs and we neither sell, nor profit from them. We share them so you can learn about them and purchase them for your own collections.
View all episodes
By Rob Marbury, Wayne Rowan, Bruce Fricks, John Lynch
4.9
4747 ratings
One of the biggest, longest running, and commercially successful bands of the rock era was founded by Carlos Santana, the only consistent member of the band throughout the years. That band of course is simply named Santana, and their debut album was also known as Santana.
Santana has always been about fusion, and you get that with this debut as well. There's jazz, Latin, calypso, funk, and soul in there, all held together by the guitar virtuosity of Mexican-American Carlos Santana. The debut album provides a lot of opportunity to take in Santana's guitar work with about half the songs being instrumentals. Santana came to prominence with their live shows, and of course would be propelled to the top with their concert at Woodstock.
The lineup for this iteration of Santana would of course include Carlos Santana on guitar and backing vocals. Greg Rolie would be on lead vocals and piano, as Carlos Santana usually had someone else on lead vocals in all the different iterations of his band. Rolie would go on to found the band Journey, as would a future Santana member, Neal Schon. Other band members were David Brown on bass, Michael Schrieve on drums, Michael Carabello, Jose "Chepito" Areas, and Marcus Malone on congas and percussion.
The band was formed in San Francisco in 1966 as the Santana Blues Band. Promoter Chet Helms told the band that they couldn't be successful with Latin-infused rock, and recommended that Santana "keep his day job" as a dishwasher at Tick Tock's Drive-In. Time would prove how wrong Helms' advice was. Santana has sold over 43 million albums in the US, and perhaps 100 million worldwide.
Friend of the show Vann Mathis joins us for this podcast.
Soul Sacrifice
If you have seen the documentary about the August 1969 Woodstock music festival you may have heard this instrumental song. This one had three screens projecting, one of the band and the other two scanning people at the concert.
Persuasion
A deeper cut sung by frontman and keyboardist Greg Rolie about a woman that his "put a spell" on a guy, and he can't think of anyone but her. "Like the devil in disguise, something about you baby. You're one, you're one of a kind."
Savor
This is a hard driving instrumental. One thing you get from Santana other than the excellent guitar riffs is a lot of congas.
Evil Ways
This was Santana's second single the band's first hit, topping out at number 9 on the Billboard charts. This song was a cover originally recorded by jazz percussionist Willy Bobo in 1967. It has a great guitar solo.
ENTERTAINMENT TRACK:
The theme from the television series “Sesame Street”
The Sesame Street Kids sing this well-known children's television theme which debuted in November of 1969.
STAFF PICKS:
Sugar, Sugar by The Archies
Brian's staff pick was performed by the cartoon band “The Archies.” Don Kirshner heard it and decided that it needed to be released. After persuading radio stations to play it, the song took off and became the biggest single hit of the year.
Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley
Mark James wrote this and recorded it in 1968, but Elvis would make it successful in 1969. It was his 18th and last number 1 single. The song itself is inspired by James' relationship with his first wife. He still had feelings for his childhood girlfriend, and his wife had suspicions about that.
Undun by The Guess Who
Rob's staff pick is from Winnipeg's own The Guess Who. Randy Bachman wrote this about a girl he dated who went into a coma after doing drugs. It is Bachman's favorite song done with the band. It was actually the B-side of a song called “Laughing.”
Space Cowboy by the Steve Miller Band
Wayne finishes us off with a song from Steve Miller's third album, Brave New World. It has a psychedelic feel. The main guitar riff borrows heavily from "Lady Madonna" by the Beatles. Steve Miller played at the Monterrey Pops Festival.
INSTRUMENTAL/COMEDY TRACK:
Yakety Sax From The Benny Hill Show
The song was first used on The Benny Hill Show in November 1969. It was composed by James Q. “Spider” Rich and Boots Randolph.
Thanks for listening to “What the Riff?!?”
NOTE: To adjust the loudness of the music or voices, you may adjust the balance on your device. VOICES are stronger in the LEFT channel, and MUSIC is stronger on the RIGHT channel.
Please follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/whattheriffpodcast/, and message or email us with what you'd like to hear, what you think of the show, and any rock-worthy memes we can share.
Of course we'd love for you to rate the show in your podcast platform!
**NOTE: What the Riff?!? does not own the rights to any of these songs and we neither sell, nor profit from them. We share them so you can learn about them and purchase them for your own collections.
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