GREATEST HITS

Don't be deceived by the 'Greatest Hits' tag: this represents tracks culled from the first three SANTANA albums. That said, it's a fair representation of early SANTANA, the kind of jazz-funk-rock the public lapped up.

And, actually, it's pretty good. All the tracks here are short, tailored to be commercially successful, without a hint of the progressiveness later to infest SANTANA's music, but they're mighty fine tunes when it comes down to it. Still, if you want a Greatest Hits collection you'd do better to look at one of the others on offer. The second, progressive stage of their career is the most interesting (check out the 1998 double CD release), and there are even some decent songs from their third and much later phase, following the heavily promoted 'Supernatural'.

If you're looking for the groove of early SANTANA, this might be just what you want. However, if you have early SANTANA in your collection, don't bother with this.