Maps of Music

Amigos (1976)

Where the lyrics of Amigos take you, and where it was really made.

Its cover was designed by Tadanori Yokoo, who had earlier designed the cover of Lotus, a gatefold LP that holds the record for the most facings.

Key places

Recorded at Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco (1976)

Recording site Hyde Street Studios — Amigos was recorded at Wally Heider Recording Studios in San Francisco. The sessions were engineered by David Rubinson and Fred Catero. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Amigos: seventh studio album by Santana, released in 1976
• Released 26 March 1976 on CBS Records
• Produced by David Rubinson & Friends
• Mixed and released in stereo and quadraphonic versions
• Opens with "Dance Sister Dance (Baila Mi Hermana)", 8:15

Background

• Greg Walker joined the group as new vocalist
• Last Santana album to include original bassist David Brown
• Spanish Wikipedia entry describes a return to musical concepts closer to the band's first three albums, moving away from jazz rock
• Lineup on record: Carlos Santana, Tom Coster, Leon "Ndugu" Chancler, Armando Peraza, David Brown, Greg Walker, with backing vocalists Ivory Stone, Julia Tillman Waters and Maxine Willard Waters

Recording

• Recorded at Wally Heider Recording Studios, San Francisco
• Engineers David Rubinson and Fred Catero, assistant Susie Foot
• Mastered by George Horn and Phil Brown at Customatrix

Cover

• Designed by Japanese artist Tadanori Yokoo
• Shows a psychedelic-style Mayan man and woman standing on a jungle cliff
• Interior artwork includes images of Jesus, Buddha and Kali, full-bleed gold printing, and live photographs from a Santana performance

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com · es.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in San Francisco, California, in 1966 by Mexican-American guitarist Carlos Santana.
• Named the Santana Blues Band at a January 1967 Fillmore audition; shortened to Santana by the end of 1967.
• Signed with Columbia Records in late 1968.
• The "classic" line-up stabilised in May 1969: Carlos Santana, Gregg Rolie, Michael Carabello, David Brown, Michael Shrieve and Jose "Chepito" Areas.

Members

• Carlos Santana is the only consistent member across the band's history.
• Classic line-up: Santana, Gregg Rolie (organ, lead vocals), Michael Carabello and Jose "Chepito" Areas (percussion), Michael Shrieve (drums), David Brown (bass).
• Brown died in 2000; Areas was not invited to the 2014 reunion.
• Classic line-up members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Career

• Breakthrough at the 1969 Woodstock Festival; the debut album Santana peaked at No. 4 on the US Billboard 200.
• Abraxas (1970) and Santana III (1971) both reached No. 1 on the US Billboard 200.
• Early 1970s experiments with jazz fusion on Caravanserai (1972), Welcome (1973) and Borboletta (1974).
• Amigos (1976) returned the band to commercial success; Moonflower (1977) was its most successful album since Santana III.
• Commercial decline in the 1980s, followed by a seven-year recording hiatus.
• Supernatural (1999) won eight Grammy Awards and sold an estimated 30 million copies worldwide.
• Santana IV (2016) reunited the classic line-up, the first recording together in 45 years.
• Estimated 100 million records sold worldwide.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Reached the top ten on the Billboard charts, the band's first album to do so since Caravanserai in 1972
• "Let It Shine" became a minor U.S. hit single
• "Europa" was released as a single and became a top ten hit in several countries
• Mixed and released in stereo and quadraphonic versions

Reappraisal

• Spanish Wikipedia entry describes the album as a return to musical concepts closer to the band's first three records
• Same entry notes the album moved away from the jazz rock experiments
• French Wikipedia entry calls the instrumental "Europa" the best known track, especially in Europe

Records

• US Billboard 200: number 10, the top ten position
• US: gold certification
• "Let It Shine" reached number 77 on the Billboard Hot 100
• France: number 5 on the music charts
• France: double gold for more than 200,000 copies sold

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Yokoo had earlier designed the cover of Lotus (1974), which holds the record for the most facings on a gatefold vinyl LP
• The elaborate packaging for the Tour of Japan recording was produced by CBS/Sony and cost about £30,000 to manufacture
• "Europa" is an instrumental and is the best known track of the album, notably in Europe
• Amigos was the last Santana album to feature original bassist David Brown

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

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