Carlos Santana brings his Supernatural Now Tour to San Francisco’s Chase Center on Tuesday.
Carlos Santana pays tribute to the album that revived his career
Having gone some 17 years without a Top 40 album, Carlos Santana was in need of a hit at the tail end of the ’90s. And the Bay Area guitar hero most definitely found one with 1999’s “Supernatural,” the 18th studio album released by Santana’s self-named Latin-rock outfit. It would become not just the biggest album of Santana’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame career, but one of the bestselling albums in rock history. Santana is celebrating the 20th anniversary of this landmark album with the massively successful Supernatural Now Tour, which comes to a close with a special hometown finale at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Chase Center in San Francisco. Veteran SoCal Latin/funk band War opens the show. It’ll be the first time that Santana has headlined the new home of the Golden State Warriors, but not the first time he’s played there. The latter occurred when he sat in with Eric Clapton at Chase back in September. In honor of the album’s 20th anniversary, and to help get fans ready for the big Chase show, we decided the time was right to look back at that blockbuster album.
Here are 20 “Supernatural” facts about Santana’s top-selling album:
1
After two decades-plus on Columbia, and then a few unsuccessful years with Polydor, Santana actually — and amazingly — found himself without a record contract in the late ’90s. But he’d end up getting a deal with Arista boss Clive Davis, the music industry legend who also happened to sign Santana to Columbia in 1969.
2
Santana and Davis enlisted a who’s who of popular music to appear on this comeback album. The guest list included the likes of Dave Matthews, Eric Clapton, Rob Thomas, Eagle-Eye Cherry, Lauryn Hill, Maná, KC Porter and Cee-Lo Green.
3
The album was originally supposed to be called “Mumbo Jumbo,” but the name was changed just prior to release. Good call.
4
Most albums from established stars start off strong on the charts and then begin to drop. “Supernatural” did the opposite, debuting at No. 19 on the Billboard 200 and then taking its sweet time — some 17 weeks — to finally hit No. 1.
5
“Supernatural” was Santana’s first No. 1 album since the band’s eponymous third album (usually referenced as “Santana III”) in 1971. And the 28 years that separate the two reportedly represents the longest gap between No. 1 albums for any artist.
6
“Supernatural” featured 13 tracks, six of which would be released as singles — “Smooth,” “Maria Maria,” “Put Your Lights On,” “Love of My Life,” “Corazón Espinado” and “Primavera.”
7
The lead single “Smooth,” featuring Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty on vocals, sailed to No. 1 in late October 1999, becoming the first charttopping single of Santana’s career. The band’s previous high was the great cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Black Magic Woman” (from the “Abraxas” album), which peaked at No. 4 in 1971.
8
“Smooth” stayed at the top of the charts for 12 weeks, long enough to make it the last No. 1 hit of the ’90s.
9
Then the calendar struck 2000 and — ta-da! — “Smooth” was still sitting there atop the charts, making it the first No. 1 of the 2000s.
10
OK, one last mindblowing “Smooth” stat: Billboard once did a list of the top songs from the first 50 years of its Hot 100 singles chart. “Smooth” came in at No. 2 on the list, behind only Chubby Checker’s “The Twist.”
11
“Maria Maria,” the second single from “Supernatural,” had nearly as impressive of a run. The tune, featuring Wyclef Jean and the R&B duo Product G&B, topped the charts for 10 weeks and ended up winning a Grammy for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals.
12
Santana would borrow the song’s title for a group of Mexican restaurants he’d open with chef Roberto Santibanez. There are currently two Maria Maria locations, in Danville and Walnut Creek.
13
The remaining four singles released from “Supernatural” didn’t make much noise in the U.S., but “Corazón Espinado” was a big hit in Spanish-speaking countries. The song, featuring the Mexican rock band Maná, also won Latin Grammy Awards for best rock performance by a duo or group and record of the year in 2000.
14
Speaking of award shows, “Supernatural” had a historic night at the 2000 Grammys, winning the evening’s top prize — album of the year — as well as seven other categories. The eight Grammy wins in one night tied a record set by Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in 1984.
15
Prior to releasing “Supernatural,” Santana’s biggest commercial hit was 1970’s “Abraxas,” which featured the top 20 hits and classic rock staples “Black Magic Woman” and “Oye Como Va” and sold some 5 million copies in the U.S.
16
“Supernatural” would lap “Abraxas,” and then some, on its way to being certified a staggering 15-times platinum in the U.S. alone and boasting global sales of 30 million.
17
“Supernatural” currently stands as the 27th bestselling album of all time in the U.S., just ahead of the Beatles’ “1962-1966” compilation (aka “The Red Album”) and right behind Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.”
18
The album was part of a huge reversal of fortune — literally — for the guitar great, who had reportedly fallen on hard financial times earlier in the decade. He’d credit his first wife, Deborah, for restructuring his business affairs. “I’d probably be a hobo if it wasn’t for her,” he told Rolling Stone. However, the two divorced in 2007 after 34 years of marriage.
19
This huge moneymaker was not, however, beloved by all of Santana’s longtime fans — the ones who grew up cherishing “Abraxas” and other early classics. And that might’ve been by design. “If you cared about Santana before ‘Supernatural,’ you were precisely the audience that ‘Supernatural’ was intended not to reach,” wrote Steven Hyden in an AV Club article. “In fact, if you cared about Santana before ‘Supernatural,’ you probably hated ‘Supernatural.’ It was Santana’s ‘Kokomo.’ ”
20
Santana played six tracks from the iconic album during his sold-out show at the Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View back in June. So expect another “Supernatural” evening when Santana visits Chase Center on Tuesday.