The Essential Santana


The Essential Santana is a compilation album by Santana, released on October 22, 2002. The collection is part of a series of Essential sets released by Columbia Records.
Uniquely among Santana compilations, "Soul Sacrifice" is included in the studio version from their first album, not the live performance from Woodstock.
The compilation contains no songs from the highly successful Supernatural album, despite it being released 3 years before this album. This is because Columbia and Santana's current label Arista Records were not under common ownership at the time. In 2013, Sony issued another "Essential Santana" 2-CD set which truncates the original's repertoire and does include music from the Arista era, as well as the live Woodstock version of "Soul Sacrifice".

Track listing

Disc one

  1. "Jingo" - 4:22
  2. "Evil Ways" - 3:56
  3. "Soul Sacrifice" - 6:36
  4. *Tracks 1–3 from Santana, 1969
  5. "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" - 5:19
  6. "Oye Como Va" - 4:17
  7. "Samba Pa Ti" - 4:46
  8. *Tracks 4–6 from Abraxas, 1970
  9. "Everybody's Everything" - 3:32
  10. "No One to Depend On" - 5:24
  11. "Toussaint l'Overture" - 5:56
  12. "Guajira" - 5:44
  13. *Tracks 7–10 from Santana III, 1971
  14. "La Fuente del Ritmo" - 4:33
  15. *from Caravanserai, 1972
  16. "In a Silent Way" - 7:58
  17. *Live at the Fillmore West, San Francisco, California, July 4, 1971
  18. *Previously featured on the compilation Fillmore: The Last Days, 1972
  19. "Love, Devotion and Surrender" - 3:38
  20. *from Welcome, 1973
  21. "Mirage" - 4:43
  22. *from Borboletta, 1974
  23. "Carnaval" - 2:15
  24. "Let the Children Play" - 3:28
  25. "Jugando" - 2:12
  26. *Tracks 15–17 from Festivál, 1977

Disc two

  1. "She's Not There" - 4:09
  2. *from Moonflower, 1977
  3. "Dance Sister Dance " - - 8:00
  4. *Live at California Jam II; originally from Amigos, 1976
  5. "Europa (Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile)" - 5:05
  6. *from Amigos, 1976
  7. "Stormy" - 4:47
  8. "Well All Right" - 4:09
  9. "Open Invitation" - 4:45
  10. *Tracks 4–6 from Inner Secrets, 1978
  11. "Aqua Marine" - 5:35
  12. "You Know That I Love You" - 3:57
  13. "All I Ever Wanted" - 3:35
  14. *Tracks 7–9 from Marathon, 1979
  15. "Winning" - 3:29
  16. *from Zebop!, 1981
  17. "Hold On" - 4:36
  18. "Nowhere to Run" - 2:53
  19. *Tracks 11–12 from Shangó, 1982
  20. "Say It Again" - 3:28
  21. *from Beyond Appearances, 1985
  22. "Veracruz" - 3:46
  23. *from Freedom, 1987
  24. "Blues for Salvador" - 5:57
  25. *from Blues for Salvador, 1987
  26. "The Healer" - 5:38
  27. *with John Lee Hooker; from The Healer, 1989