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: Music from the [Original Soundtrack and More|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 (Santana song)|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 (John [Lee Hooker album)|The Healer], 1989