50 Fun Facts About Santana

In which US city was the band Santana formed in 1966?

San Francisco is where Carlos washed dishes full-time and busked for change while soaking up the hippie scene, until he could quit the job and start the group.

Carlos Santana was born in Autlán de Navarro, in which Mexican state?

Jalisco was home until the family moved to the border city of Tijuana, where Carlos, a mariachi musician's son, discovered American blues and rock and roll.

Four months after Woodstock, Santana opened which infamous free concert headlined by the Rolling Stones?

Altamont turned violent as the day wore on: Hells Angels acting as security fought with the crowd, and a fan was stabbed to death while the Stones played.

Which instrumental from Santana's Woodstock set became a highlight of the festival film?

Soul Sacrifice turned on a drum solo by Michael Shrieve, who had just turned 20, and the band played it to that crowd before it had released a single record.

'Black Magic Woman', Santana's 1970 hit, was originally written and recorded by which band?

Fleetwood Mac's 1968 original reached only No. 37 in Britain and missed the US chart, while Santana's cover climbed to No. 4 and became the better-known version.

Carlos Santana's 'Dar um Jeito (We Will Find a Way)' was the official anthem of which 2014 sporting event?

The FIFA World Cup in Brazil: the song has one verse in English and one in Portuguese, and Carlos played at the closing ceremony in Rio before the final.

Which guitar great trades solos with Carlos Santana on the Supernatural track 'The Calling'?

Eric Clapton was the rare fellow veteran on an album that deliberately paired Carlos with younger hitmakers such as Lauryn Hill and Dave Matthews; their duet won a Grammy of its own.

Who sang and co-wrote 'Smooth', the lead single from Supernatural?

Rob Thomas never meant to sing it: he took the job to try writing for someone else and floated George Michael as the vocalist before the label asked him to do it himself.

Which hip-hop star co-wrote and produced Santana's second No. 1 single from Supernatural?

Wyclef Jean produced it with Jerry Duplessis and brought in his own protégés, the Product G&B, to sing; the single spent ten weeks at No. 1 in the spring of 2000.

Santana's Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon went on to found which band in 1973?

Journey began as a jazz-rock outfit with Rolie singing lead; the arena-filling hits came only after Steve Perry took over the microphone in 1977.

Which label, home to Bob Dylan, signed Santana in the late 1960s?

Columbia stayed Santana's label for 22 years, until Carlos left to sign with PolyGram.

Which Latin-music-loving promoter championed Santana and booked them at his Fillmore ballrooms?

Bill Graham personally got the still-unknown band onto the Woodstock bill, the booking that made it famous before its first album was out.

Which Santana single, the band's first US top-ten hit, was first recorded by Latin jazz percussionist Willie Bobo?

Evil Ways was pressed on the band by its promoter, who thought the simple tune would get radio play; it peaked at No. 9 in 1970.

Which Santana album features 'Oye Como Va', later inducted into the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame?

Abraxas turned Tito Puente's early-1960s cha-cha-chá into a worldwide rock hit, swapping his brass section for electric guitar and Hammond organ.

Santana's 1972 album Caravanserai marked a strong shift toward which genre?

Jazz fusion was such a leap that the label's president told Carlos he was committing career suicide; the album sold more slowly than its predecessors but still went platinum.

Which guru took Carlos Santana as a disciple in the 1970s and gave him the name Devadip?

Sri Chinmoy demanded a disciplined life free of drugs and alcohol; Carlos followed him for roughly a decade before breaking away in the early 1980s.

Santana recorded the 1973 album Love, Devotion, Surrender with which fusion guitarist?

John McLaughlin brought members of his Mahavishnu Orchestra into the studio alongside Santana's players, and the two guitarists then took the music on tour together.

Santana's 1974 album Illuminations was a collaboration with the widow of which jazz giant?

John Coltrane was one of Carlos's heroes; his widow Alice played harp and keyboards, and the pair signed the album with their spiritual names, Turiya and Devadip.

Santana's 1977 album Moonflower had a hit cover of 'She's Not There', originally by which band?

The Zombies had already broken up when another of their songs, 'Time of the Season', became a US hit in 1969; Santana's 1977 cover put their debut single back in the Top 40.

Carlos Santana co-wrote the score for which 1987 music biopic?

La Bamba told the story of Ritchie Valens, killed at 17 in a 1959 plane crash; Los Lobos re-recorded his hits for the film and took the title song to No. 1.

Santana's 1987 solo record Blues for Salvador won a Grammy in which category?

Best Rock Instrumental Performance was the first Grammy of his career, arriving some twenty years after Woodstock made him a star.

Which jam band did Santana hire as his opening act in 1992?

Phish got more than a support slot: Carlos regularly called some or all of them up to jam during his own headline sets, and took them across Europe again in 1996.

Which record executive, who had worked with Santana at his first label, signed him to Arista and pushed the star-studded Supernatural?

Clive Davis steered him toward collaborations with younger stars, the formula that produced 'Smooth', after Carlos had asked his previous label to let him go.

Supernatural was Santana's first US No. 1 album since which 1971 release?

Santana III was the last chart-topper for 28 years, and even Supernatural debuted at only No. 19, needing months of climbing before it reached the top in October 1999.

Who wrote 'Black Magic Woman' and joined Santana to play it at the 1998 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony?

Peter Green shared the night twice over: he was inducted with his own old band at the same ceremony, then walked on to play the song with the group that made it famous.

Which singer featured on 'The Game of Love', the Grammy-winning lead single from 2002's Shaman?

Michelle Branch was not the first voice on the song: co-writer Gregg Alexander sang the demo, and a finished take by Tina Turner was shelved, staying unreleased until 2007.

Which rock frontman wrote 'Why Don't You & I' and sang it on Santana's album Shaman?

Chad Kroeger's label refused to let his voice go out on the single ahead of a new Nickelback album, so Alex Band of the Calling re-sang it for radio.

Carlos Santana is credited with inspiring the name of which amplifier company after trying an early model?

Mesa Boogie got its name after founder Randall Smith hot-rodded a small Fender amp and asked Carlos to try it; he exclaimed that it really boogies.

Which guitar maker builds Carlos Santana's signature models?

PRS did not yet exist when Carlos first ordered a hand-built guitar from Paul Reed Smith; the company was founded in 1985, and his signature models followed.

What guitar did Carlos Santana play at Woodstock?

A red Gibson SG Special, which Carlos has said he played that day while still feeling the effects of a psychedelic.

Cindy Blackman was playing which role in Carlos Santana's band when he proposed to her on stage in 2010?

Drummer Cindy Blackman had barely finished her solo at a show in Illinois when Carlos proposed; she had spent years before that touring with Lenny Kravitz.

What was the name of the upscale Mexican restaurant chain that Carlos Santana co-founded?

Maria Maria took its name from his 2000 chart-topper; he launched the restaurants in 2007 with chef Roberto Santibañez.

Carlos Santana and Buddy Miles played a 1972 concert inside a volcanic crater in which US state?

Hawaii's Diamond Head crater hosted the show: with his own band splintering, Carlos had teamed up with Buddy Miles, Jimi Hendrix's former bandmate.

Santana's 2019 album Africa Speaks was produced by which famed producer?

Rick Rubin hosted the band at his Shangri-La studio in Malibu, where they cut 49 songs in ten days, many of them in a single take.

Which 2014 Santana album paired him with Latin stars such as Juanes and Gloria Estefan?

Corazón was previewed with a concert in Mexico in December 2013, which came out as a live album a few months after the studio record.

Carlos Santana played guitar on 'Whatever Happens', a 2001 track from which Michael Jackson album?

The track was revisited on Santana's 2025 collaborations retrospective.

At the 2005 Oscars, Carlos Santana performed one of the nominated songs alongside which actor?

Antonio Banderas performed it with him because its composer, Jorge Drexler, was not allowed to sing it himself; Drexler then won the Oscar and sang a few lines in place of a speech.

Carlos Santana joined which blues legend on the title track of the 1989 comeback album The Healer?

John Lee Hooker was one of the bluesmen Carlos copied as a boy learning guitar; their collaboration gave the veteran the highest-charting album of his forty-year career.

Santana's 1974 triple live album Lotus was recorded in which country?

Japan got the album first: the sprawling triple set was not issued in the US until 1991, so for 17 years American fans could buy it only as an import.

Santana played Soul to Soul, the 1971 concert marking the 14th independence anniversary of which African country?

Ghana heard a stand-in that night: with percussionist Chepito Areas recovering from a brain haemorrhage, Latin jazz veteran Willie Bobo took his place.

Which 2009 video game features Carlos Santana as a playable character?

Guitar Hero 5 had Carlos perform the motion capture for his own avatar, which shared the game with digital versions of Johnny Cash and Kurt Cobain.

Which big cat stares out from the cover of Santana's 1969 debut album?

A lion, which Lee Conklin first drew for a 1968 Fillmore West concert poster; the band liked it so much that it asked him to redraw it for the album sleeve.

What name did Carlos Santana's group take for its first Fillmore audition in January 1967?

The Santana Blues Band shared that audition bill with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band; the last two words were soon dropped as congas and Afro-Cuban rhythms took over its sound.

In which city did Santana headline a multi-year residency at the House of Blues?

Las Vegas had hosted him before: his Supernatural hits show ran at the Hard Rock Hotel until 2011, and the reunited early-1970s line-up filmed a concert at the House of Blues in 2016.

Which instrument did Carlos Santana learn at age five, before taking up the guitar at eight?

Violin was his father's instrument: José Santana was a mariachi violinist, and young Carlos played in his band on the streets before blues and rock on the radio won him over to guitar.

Sixteen years after Woodstock, Santana played which benefit concert?

Live Aid's Philadelphia show in 1985 opened with Joan Baez telling the crowd 'this is your Woodstock'; she and Santana were among the handful of its acts who had played the original.

Roughly how many copies has Santana's Supernatural sold worldwide?

30 million is the figure usually quoted, with 15 million certified in the US alone, for a guitarist who had gone more than 15 years without a hit single.

Carlos Santana plays the guitar solo on 'Illegal', from a 2005 album by which Latin pop star?

Shakira invited him onto Oral Fixation, Vol. 2, her second English-language album, and 'Illegal' became its final single, released in the wake of 'Hips Don't Lie'.

Whose composition 'Gypsy Queen' forms the second part of Santana's 1970 'Black Magic Woman'?

Gábor Szabó, a Hungarian jazz guitarist, shaped Carlos's playing so deeply that four decades later he recorded a tribute track called 'Mr. Szabo'.

Carlos Santana, Billy Joel and Herbie Hancock together received which American award in 2013?

The Kennedy Center Honors reunited him with a collaborator: fellow honoree Herbie Hancock had played on his 1980 album The Swing of Delight and later recruited him for a record of his own.