'Santana' is the debut studio album by the San Francisco chicano rock group Santana released in 1969. It is a release of largely instrumental music, recorded by what was originally a purely free-form jam band. At the suggestion of manager Bill Graham, the band took to writing more conventional songs for more impact, but managed to retain the essence of improvisation in the music.
The album was destined to be a major release, given a headstart by the band's seminal performance at the Woodstock Festival earlier that August. The album peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200 pop album chart.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 149 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
