Carlos Santana

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Santana's Seminal Second Album 'Abraxas' Turns 50 | For The Record

Relive the magic of Santana's 1970 sophomore album containing some of the band's most recognizable songs such as "Black Magic Woman" and "Oye Como Va"

Nate Hertweck

GRAMMYs

Sep 16, 2020 - 12:48 pm

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.

For The Record: Santana's 'Abraxas'

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.

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Carlos Santana

Photo: Kevin Winter/WireImage

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Santana, 'Abraxas': For The Record

Revisit the album that proved rock music's emerging ability to experiment could integrate diverse traditions and intoxicate young audiences

Philip Merrill

GRAMMYs

Sep 28, 2018 - 5:42 pm

After their success at the summer rock festival Woodstock in Aug. 1969 and the contemporary release of their debut self-titled album, guitarist Carlos Santana and his band Santana put out their follow-up, Abraxas, in Sept. 1970. His lead guitar and the album's eclectic combination of rock, Latin rhythms and experimental creativity captured the spirit of the times, filled with a sense of potential new experiences.

For The Record: Santana's 'Abraxas'

By Oct. 1970, Abraxas reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. On the Hot 100 in early 1971, its single "Black Magic Woman" peaked at No. 4, and "Oye Como Va" reached No. 13 a few months later — reinterpreting the Tito Puente cha-cha as rock and helping to prove the flourishing genre's ability to bring new relevance to compositions from other musical traditions.

A San Francisco Bay local, Carlos Santana got his break from Fillmore promoter Bill Graham. An origin myth Santana doesn't remember the same way has Graham discovering the youngster after he snuck into the venue's office. "I was a kid right out of high school and nobody else was putting on shows like Bill did then," he remembered, explaining why he was always around.

As locals, they could fill in for missing bands on the schedule in a flash. Graham wrote in his autobiography, "To this day, Santana is still the only band ever to headline the Fillmore without having made a record."

Thanks to their excellence and reflecting the cultural moment, happenstance became legend. The band's second album was added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2016. Shortly before the close of the millennium, Abraxas was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame, in 1999 — the year Carlos Santana's album Supernatural was released, taking him to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for the third time, from a career-total of four times so far. At the 42nd GRAMMY Awards, he won in eight categories, including Album Of The Year and Best Rock Album.

Marvin Gaye 'Let's Get It On' | For The Record

Rage Against The Machine in 1996

Photo: Niels van Iperen/Getty Images

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For The Record: Saluting Los Angeles Revolutionary Rockers Rage Against The Machine

With powerful tracks like "Killing In The Name," "Testify" and "Renegades Of Funk," Tom Morello, Zack de la Rocha, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk called out injustice

Ana Monroy Yglesias

GRAMMYs

Nov 4, 2020 - 3:33 pm

It's been 21 years since anti-establishment rock group Rage Against The Machine released their hard-hitting GRAMMY-nominated third studio album, The Battle Of Los Angeles, but its messages are still so pertinent today.

In the latest episode of GRAMMY.com's For The Record video series below, learn more about the GRAMMY-winning Los Angeles rock heavy-weights and their life-long activism.

For The Record: Rage Against The Machine

Must Read: Tom Morello On Storytelling & Rocking Out, Mixed-Race Identity, The 2020 Election & More

With powerful tracks like "Killing In The Name," "Testify" and "Renegades Of Funk," to name a few, Tom Morello, Zack de la Rocha, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk call out injustice and continue pushing the culture forward.

What It Meant To Me Will Eventually Be A Memory: Linkin Park's 'Hybrid Theory' Turns 20

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Angela Aguilar

Photo: David Crotty/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images

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Angela Aguilar's Amazing Journey To GRAMMY-Nominated Artist | For The Record

Trace Aguilar's soaring success all the way back to her musical roots in the latest edition of For The Record

Nate Hertweck

GRAMMYs

Aug 19, 2020 - 4:03 pm

From the very beginning, GRAMMY- and Latin GRAMMY-nominated artist Ángela Aguilar had music in her heart. Aguilar's father is GRAMMY-winning mariachi singer/songwriter Pepe Aguilar, her grandfather was the late GRAMMY-nominated master mariachi singer and Mexican Cinema Golden Era actor Antonio Aguilar and her grandmother is the prolific Mexican singer and actress Flor Silvestre. But even with such musically auspicious beginnings, Ángela has carved out a style and an audience all her own.

Angela Aguilar's Amazing Journey | For The Record

In the latest edition of GRAMMY.com's For The Record, we take a look back at Aguilar's rise from being born in 2003 into "La Dinastía Aguilar" to garnering global superstar status.

Ángela's musical start came at age 9, when she released Nueva Tradición with her older brother Leonardo in 2012. Her debut solo album arrived in 2018, Primera Soy Mexicana, and earned the singer her first career GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY nominations.

In 2019, Aguilar performed alongside Aida Cuevas and Natalia Lafourcade perform an unforgettable rendition of "La Llorona" at the 61st GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony.

Also in 2019, she showed even more of her range, delivering her first recorded performance in English when she covered Lady Gaga's "Shallow" for the Recording Academy's ReImagined series

Angela Aguilar Covers Lady Gaga's "Shallow"

Earlier this year, on Jan. 31, she released Baila Esta Cumbia, a very special tribute album to late GRAMMY-winning legend Selena. In June, she released "Que No Se Apague la Música," an at-home concert video to benefit MusiCares. The dynamic performance was filmed at her home in Zacatecas, Mexico, and dedicated to the music community, the doctors and nurses fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and her loyal fans.

Aguilar has accomplished so much in her career already, her fans everywhere eagerly await her next project. Watch the full video above to find out more about Aguilar in the latest edition of For The Record.

Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee: Angela Aguilar On Her Culture And Family Legacy

David Bowie

Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

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David Bowie's '…Ziggy Stardust…' | For The Record

Return to the time when one of a generation's greatest artists introduced one of his most memorable characters

Nate Hertweck

GRAMMYs

Aug 14, 2018 - 5:02 pm

"Ziggy played guitar…"

Three years after he created the character of Major Tom in his breakout hit, "Space Oddity," and four years before the Thin White Duke arrived on Station To Station, art-rock icon David Bowie introduced the world to a new alter-ego that would immortalize both the character and its creator.

David Bowie's '…Ziggy Stardust…' | For The Record

The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars was released June 16, 1972, Bowie's fifth studio album and perhaps the most widely recognizable and identifiable project of his career. Visually, the character of Ziggy Stardust would become emblazoned in the memory of pop culture history. Musically, he had the rock and roll universe singing along to something entirely new.

Recorded in London's Trident Studios in late 1971 and early 1972, the album was produced by Ken Scott. Even today, over 45 years after its release, …Ziggy Stardust… seems to careen through the universe as something entirely new, encapsulating a spaceman's journey through the cosmos as told by an androgynous storyteller. In an era where concept albums began to take over the art-rock cannon, Bowie and Scott achieved a special blend of conceptual cohesion and sonic and artistic experimentation.

From the album's orchestral space take-off opening track, "Five Years," and the psychedelic trip of "Moonage Daydream" though well-known Bowie classics such as "Starman" and "Ziggy Stardust" to raucous rock anthems such as the "Star" and "Suffragette City," …Ziggy Stardust… dances, soars, rambles, and rocks.

Bowie's vocal range from fragile croon to rebel roar is on full display, and the Mick Ronson-led Spiders From Mars build an adventurous musical backdrop to the album's concepts, making for one of the greatest of many great projects Bowie gave us during his career.

In 1999, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame. In 2017, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or artistically significant" by the Library of Congress.

Just two days after his 69th birthday and the release of what would be his final masterpiece, Blackstar, Bowie died on Jan. 10, 2016. The lasting legacy of …Ziggy Stardust… lives on as a compelling time capsule to be dug up, appreciated and enjoyed by generations of music fans to come.