
Carlos Santana
Santana's Seminal Second Album 'Abraxas' Turns 50 | For The Record
Half a century ago, and almost three decades before Carlos Santana and company went Supernatural, psychedelic Latin rockers Santana released their legendary second studio album, Abraxas, on Sept. 23, 1970.
The band borrowed the album's aptly dazzing title from a book called Demian credited to Emil Sinclair, a pen name of author Hermann Hesse, who also wrote Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game. Watch the latest edition of For The Record in the video above to find out where the band got the colorful artwork on the album cover.
The music of Abraxas yielded some of Santana's biggest hits: "Black Magic Woman," "Oye Como Va" and "Hope You Feel Better." The band went on to win eight GRAMMY Awards and rock music has never been the same since Abraxas.
In 1999, the album was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame. Learn more about the classic status of Abraxas by watching the episode above.