Writer: Tito Puente
Producers: Fred Catero and Santana
Recorded: Spring 1970 in San Francisco
Released: October 1970
| Players: | Carlos Santana — guitar, vocals David Brown — bass Greg Rolie — keyboards, vocals Michael Shrieve — drums Jose “Chepito” Areas — timbales Michael Carabello — congas |
| Album: | Abraxas (Columbia, 1970) |
“Oye Como Va” was written by percussionist Tito Puente, who turned it into a Latin music standard.
Santana's version of the song, which was recorded for the group's second album, peaked at Number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and enjoyed a ten-week stay on the chart.
In the liner notes for his box set Dance Of The Rainbow Serpent, guitarist Carlos Santana wrote, “I first heard 'Oye Como Va' around two o'clock in the morning…(I used to stay up late at night as I still do). That night, the radio was playing and this guy was saying 'Party, it's party time, party time.' All night, 'party time.' And he would play Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barretto, and Tito Puente — straight-ahead Afro-Cuban music. And when that one came on, I said to myself, 'Now I've got to find this song.' And after he said, 'That was 'Oye Como Va,' Tito Puente, I wrote it down.”
Santana added, “As soon as I heard it, I felt like there was something — it's like alchemy, combining this with that and you get gold, you know? 'Oye Como Va' had a 'Louie Louie' kind of thing: Friday night, you're a teenager, and you don't have to be responsible to anybody, so you just turn it up and dance. That's what 'Oye Como Va' is to this day. It still has the same effect. It's church and it's also party. Thank God for Tito Puente.”
The Abraxas album was Santana's first Number One on the Billboard 200.
