"Evil Ways" is a song made famous by Mexican-American rock band

Santana Santana may refer to: Transportation * Volkswagen Santana, an automobile * Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles * Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer Boats * Santana 20, an American sailboat design by W. D. Sch ...

from their 1969 self-titled debut album. It was written by

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and originally recorded by jazz percussionist

Willie Bobo William Correa (February 28, 1934 – September 15, 1983), better known by his stage name Willie Bobo,

Biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

''AllMusic'' was an American Latin jazz percussionist of Puerto Rican descent. Bobo rejected the stereotypical expectations of ...

on his 1967 album ''

Bobo Motion ''Bobo Motion'' is an album by jazz percussionist Willie Bobo recorded in 1967 and released on the Verve Records, Verve label.

''. Alongside Santana's release in 1969, "Evil Ways" was also recorded by the band The Village Callers. The lyrics of the song are written in simple verse form. Released as a single in late 1969, it became Santana's first

top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

and top 10 hit in the US, peaking at #9 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 the week of March 21, 1970.

Gregg Rolie Gregg Alan Rolie (born June 17, 1947) is an American singer and keyboardist. Rolie served as lead singer of the bands Santana and Journey – both of which he co-founded. He also helmed rock group The Storm, performed in Ringo Starr & His All ...

performs the lead vocals and plays a

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

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in the middle section. The

double-time In popular music, half-time is a type of meter and tempo that alters the rhythmic feel by essentially ''doubling the tempo resolution'' or metric division/level in comparison to common-time. Thus, two measures of approximate a single measure o ...

coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...

includes a

guitar solo A guitar solo is a melodic passage, instrumental section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. In 20th and 21st century traditional music and popular m ...

performed by

Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist who rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band Santana, which pioneered a fusion of Rock and roll and Latin American jazz. Its sound featured ...

, who also does the backing vocals.

Notable covers and samples

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum s ...

released the song as a single in 1970. It made the ''Cash Box'' survey at number 118, and also appeared on MOR music surveys in ''Billboard'' (#30) and ''Record World''. Jazz saxophonist

Stanley Turrentine Stanley William Turrentine (April 5, 1934 – September 12, 2000) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He began his career playing R&B for Earl Bostic and later soul jazz recording for the Blue Note label from 1960, touched on jazz fusion dur ...

covered the song as a smooth jazz fusion on his album ''

The Man with the Sad Face ''The Man with the Sad Face'' is an album by jazz saxophonist Stanley Turrentine recorded for the Fantasy Records, Fantasy label in 1976 and featuring performances by Turrentine with an orchestra arranged and conducted by David Van De Pitte.

'', released in 1976. Latin rapper

Mellow Man Ace Ulpiano Sergio Reyes (born April 12, 1967), better known as Mellow Man Ace, is a Cuban-American rapper known for bilingual delivery and novelty rhymes. He was born in Cuba and moved to Los Angeles with his family at the age of four. Early life ...

sampled this track and used it as the main melody for his single " Mentirosa" (1989). Filipino rapper RapAsia sampled this track and used it as the main melody for his Tagalog single "Hoy! Tsismosa" (1991) for the self-titled album of the same name. It was released in the Philippines by

Viva Records Viva may refer to: Companies and organisations * Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator * Viva Air, a Spanish airline taken over by flag carrier Iberia * Viva Air Dominicana * VIVA Bahrain, a telecommunication company * ...

. Alternative rock jam band

Rusted Root Rusted Root is an American worldbeat rock band formed in 1990 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by singer-guitarist Michael Glabicki (born January 21, 1971), bassist Patrick Norman and percussionist Liz Berlin. The band got its start as the house ba ...

performed "Evil Ways" on the soundtrack of the 1995 film '' Home for the Holidays''. Alex Gimeno sampled the riff from "Evil Ways" in his track "Funky Bikini" (1999) from his musical project titled ''Ursula 1000''. The song was used in the 2001 film ''

The Fast and the Furious ''Fast & Furious'' (also known as ''The Fast and the Furious'') is a media franchise centered on a series of action films that are largely concerned with street racing, heists, spies, and family. The franchise also includes short films, ...

'', and named in the credits.

Erroneous credit

On first pressings of both Santana's debut album and the single release, the

songwriting A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

credit was given to Jimmie Zack. Zack was a minor

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artist out of the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

who recorded a song with the same title in 1960, credited as Jimmie Zack and the Blues Rockers, however, it was not the same song as recorded by Santana.

References

{{authority control 1967 songs 1969 singles 1970 singles Santana (band) songs Johnny Mathis songs Columbia Records singles