Maps of Music

Beyond Appearances (1985)

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

Made in seven months with a mostly new line-up, this album's best-charting single reached only No. 46 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Key places

Additional recording at Plant Studios (1985)

Recording site Record Plant — Additional recording for the album took place at Plant Studios in Sausalito, as listed in the album credits. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recording at Record One, Los Angeles (1985)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — The album was recorded by Val Garay and Richard Bosworth at Record One in Los Angeles. The point uses the city-center location, not the building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Beyond Appearances: the fourteenth studio album by Santana
• Released in 1985
• Made over seven months with a mostly different line-up from the previous album
• Musically firmly in the style of the 1980s, with heavy use of synthesizers and drum machines
• Producer and recording credits: Val Garay (Discogs credit)

Background

• Only Carlos Santana, Alex Ligertwood, Armando Peraza, Raul Rekow and Orestes Vilato remained from Shangó (1982)
• Singer Greg Walker returned in 1983 after leaving in 1979; this was his first album with Santana since Inner Secrets
• The band had two vocalists at the time: Walker and Ligertwood
• Bassist Alphonso Johnson joined in 1984 and made two albums with the group, this being the first
• Chester Thompson on drums and David Sancious on keyboards appear only on this album
• Chester D. Thompson played keyboards here for the first time and stayed with the band into the 2000s

Recording

• Recorded by Val Garay & Richard Bosworth at Record One, Los Angeles
• Additional recording at Plant Studios, Sausalito
• Mixed by Val Garay at Record One
• Right Now was mixed by Jim Gaines

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

• Beyond Appearances performed relatively poorly, reaching only fifty on the Billboard album chart
• Say It Again reached number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart
• Say It Again performed better on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, reaching number fifteen

Records

• Billboard 200 album chart peak: 50
• Say It Again: Billboard Hot 100 peak 46
• Say It Again: Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks peak 15
• No critic reviews are cited for this album in the sources, so the commercial results are the main record of its reception

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album is the only one to feature Chester Thompson on drums and David Sancious on keyboards in the band's lineup history.
• Chester D. Thompson played keyboards on this album for the first time and remained with the band until the 2000s.
• Greg Walker returned to Santana in 1983 after leaving in 1979, and this album was his first with the band since Inner Secrets.
• Right Now was mixed by Jim Gaines, not by the album's main mixing engineer.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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