For the first time, the entire scope of Santana is presented together on one volume – from the Woodstock era rock and blues band that single-handedly brought West Coast Latin rhythms into the progressive-FM stream in the 1970s, up through their mega-platinum Grammy Award-winning years.
‘Ultimate Santana,’ a career-spanning celebration of an artist and their music, is highlighted by three brand new, previously unreleased collaborative tracks with Chad Kroeger, Tina Turner, and Jennifer Lopez featuring rapper Baby Bash, and will arrive in stores October 16th on Arista.
The first single and previously unreleased track “Into The Night” featuring Chad Kroeger was #1 most added at the Hot AC radio format and most added at Top 40 radio first week out. The video, directed by Jessy Terrero and starring actors Freddy Rodriguez and Dania Ramirez, premiered on AOL and is in rotation at VH-1.
Other previously unreleased, brand new tracks include a dynamic pairing with Tina Turner on the track “The Game of Love,” and Jennifer Lopez and Baby Bash join Santana on the red hot, brand new track "This Boy's Fire."
‘Ultimate Santana’ marks the first anthology to include touchstone tracks from the band’s earliest hitmaking years on Columbia Records alongside the groundbreaking collaborations that highlighted their three consecutive blockbuster Arista albums: ‘Supernatural’ (1999), ‘Shaman’ (2002), and ‘All That I Am’ (2005).
All three albums were produced by Carlos Santana and Clive Davis – a welcome reunion for the executive who first signed Santana to Columbia Records and oversaw their formative years on the path to international superstardom starting in 1969.
Three decades later, ‘Supernatural’ became – and remains – an unsurpassed industry phenom, 15-times RIAA platinum in the U.S. alone, the #6 best-selling album in Soundscan history, with nearly double that number of sales worldwide. The album spent 102 weeks on the Billboard chart including 12 weeks at #1 – no album since then has logged more than 8 weeks at the top.
The album’s success was fueled by the smash single “Smooth” (co-written by and featuring Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty) which spent 12 weeks at #1 on the hot 100, Santana’s first #1 single; and “Maria Maria” (featuring Product G&B), 10 weeks at #1 pop, and 3 weeks at #1 R&B.
Most significantly, ‘Supernatural’ generated an all-time record-breaking nine GRAMMY awards for a single album project, including Album Of the Year and Best Rock Album, as well as Record Of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Collaboration, all for “Smooth,” plus Best Pop Performance by a Duo/Group for “Maria Maria,” and Best Rock Performance by a Duo/Group for “Put Your Lights On” (featuring Everlast). There were also premiere Latin Grammy Awards (the show’s first year) for Record Of The Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo/Group for “Corazon Espinado” (featuring Maná). All four of these hits are included on ‘Ultimate Santana.’
‘Supernatural’ was a hard act to follow – but 2002’s ‘Shaman’ gave Santana a second consecutive #1 multi-platinum album. The lead single track was “The Game of Love” featuring Michelle Branch - which is also heard here in a brand new, previously unreleased version featuring Tina Turner. Chad Kroeger who joins Carlos on the album’s first hit single “Into The Night” wrote and performed “Why Don’t You and I” on ‘Shaman,’ and for this collection, the track features vocals from Alex Band of The Calling.
The third in this series of collaborative albums was 2005’s ‘All That I Am,’ which entered the Billboard 200 albums chart at #2. From that album, ‘Ultimate Santana’ highlights the anthemic rock performance “Just Feel Better” (featuring Steven Tyler of Aerosmith).
bobby jasinOct 9th, 2007 - 17:57:10
carlos santana is an american musical treasure. there are very few guitarists who sound like him or musicians who consistently and genuinely demonstrate his compassion.
the ultimate santana figures to do a masterful job of capturing carlos' unique sound and the unmistakable energy of his band over the past 40 years. carlos is at the point in his career where he can name the musician(s) he wants to perform with, live or in the studio, and travel anywhere across the globe to play before enthusiastic, sold-out throngs, ranging in age from 10 to 70. he is a very special, special musician and mystic.
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