| Santana | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Santana |
| Cover: | Santana3.jpg |
| Released: | September 24, 1971[1] |
| Recorded: | January – July 4, 1971 |
| Studio: | Columbia Studios, San Francisco |
| Length: | 41:27 |
| Label: | Columbia Legacy (2006 edition) |
| Producer: | Santana |
| Prev Title: | Abraxas |
| Prev Year: | 1970 |
| Next Title: | Caravanserai |
| Next Year: | 1972 |
Santana is the third studio album by the American rock band Santana. The band's second self-titled album, it is often referred to as III or Santana III to distinguish it from the band's 1969 debut album. The album was also known as Man with an Outstretched Hand, after its album cover image. It was the third and last album by the Woodstock-era lineup, until their reunion on Santana IV in 2016. It was also considered by many to be the band's peak commercially and musically, as subsequent releases aimed towards more experimental jazz fusion and Latin music. The album also marked the addition of 16-year-old guitarist Neal Schon to the group.
The original album was recorded at Columbia Studios, San Francisco, and released in both stereo and quadraphonic.
The album featured two singles that charted in the United States. "Everybody's Everything" peaked at No. 12 in October 1971,[2] while "No One to Depend On", an uncredited adaptation of Willie Bobo's boogaloo standard "Spanish Grease", received significant airplay on FM radio and peaked at No. 36 in March 1972. Santana III was also the last Santana album to hit #1 on the charts until Supernatural in 1999. The 2005 edition of Guinness World Records stated that was the longest gap between #1 albums ever occurring (a record which is now held by Paul McCartney since his seventeenth solo studio album, Egypt Station, topped the Billboard 200 chart on 2018, his first since his 1982's Tug of War). The original album was re-released in 1998 with live versions of "Batuka", "Jungle Strut" and a previously unreleased song, "Gumbo", recorded at Fillmore West in 1971 which features lead guitar solos by both Santana and Schon.
As was done with the band's debut album, released two years earlier, in 2006 Sony released the "Legacy Edition" of the album, featuring the original album in re-mastered sound, and bonus material:
The original Quadraphonic mix of the album was remastered and released on multichannel SACD by Sony Japan in 2021.
| Chart (1971-1972) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[6] | 4 |
| Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)[7] | 2 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon)[8] | 4 |