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This was a hit for Santana, but few people know that this song is actually a cover of a 1968 Fleetwood Mac song that hit UK #37. Peter Green, who was a founding member of Fleetwood Mac, wrote the lyrics. The original's music sounds very similar to the sound Santana added on his version.
The 1:49 instrumental at the end is called "Gypsy Queen," and was written by Hungarian Jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo. It was omitted from the 1974 Greatest Hits album, even though radio stations usually play "Black Magic Woman" and "Gypsy Queen" as one song. (thanks, Jim - Oxnard, CA, for above 2)
The original version is based on a Blues song Peter Green wrote for Fleetwood Mac's first UK album called "I Loved Another Woman."
Mick Fleetwood called the original version "Three minutes of sustain/reverb guitar with 2 exquisite solos from Peter."
After this was released, Peter Green befriended some people who were into black magic. In an interview with Cameron Crowe of Rolling Stone magazine, Christine McVie said these were the people who turned him on to acid, which led to Green leaving Fleetwood Mac.
Santana keybord player Gregg Rolie sang lead on this. He joined Journey in 1973.
For this song's solo, Santana played across the Latin rhythm on his Gibson Les Paul Special through the amp and rode the volume knob throughout the track to add sustain and distortion as required.
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Santana sued Budweiser because they copied his arrangement of Black Magic Women. Two people can record a song and have it come out very different. I was watching a show years back were a band played country songs in a blues style and blues songs in a country style. It was very enlightening.
A modern example of this is Hayseed Dixie's covers of heavy metal songs in a bluegrass arrangement.
is mezmerising- it sounds like a Santeria ceremony- By the way Santana had a relative of
his form a band called Malo- there song
Sauvecito is a beautiful latino rock song-flv
I still prefer Santana's 70s/80s stuff way more than the "Maria Maria" shiet ... A few weeks ago one of my co-worker told me that she had heard some girl saying "there is a new band called Santana and the track Maria Maris sounds very cool". Hahaha...
It's unfortunate that Peter seldom gets credit for writing "such a ledgendary song." I hope he gets the royalties, at least.
When Fleetwood Mac returned in 1970, Peter had gone and Christine Perfect had joined the band. Didn't see Peter again until Christine's (2nd) wedding in the late '70s.