Single:
Oye Cómo Va entered the Australian singles chart* on 5 April 1971 and peaked at #55.
Album:
The song is on Abraxas which entered the Australian albums chart* on 25 January 1971. The album reached #1 on 22 February 1971.
Songwriter:
Tito Puente
Producers:
Fred Catero, Carlos Santana
Record label of Australian release:
CBS
*Kent Music Report / Australian Chart Book. See About.
BONUS SONG BELOW – Oye Cómo Va by Tito Puente
Wikipedia:
Oye Cómo Va is a 1962 cha-cha-chá song by Tito Puente, originally released on El Rey Bravo. The song achieved worldwide popularity when it was covered by American rock group Santana for their 1970 album Abraxas.
Santana’s arrangement is a “driving, cranked-up version” in a new style of Latin rock, adding electric guitar, Hammond B-3 organ, and a rock drum kit to the instrumentation and dropping Puente’s brass section. The electric guitar part takes on Puente’s flute melody, and the organ provides accompaniment (with organist Gregg Rolie’s discreet use of the Leslie effect). There are several guitar solos and an organ solo, all of which are rooted in rock and the blues but also contain licks similar to those of the original arrangement.
Tito Puente, speaking in the intro to his recording of Oye Cómo Va on the album Mambo Birdland, said “Everybody’s heard of Santana. Santana! Beautiful Santana! He put our music, Latin rock, around the world, man! And I’d like to thank him publicly ’cause he recorded a tune and he gave me credit as the composer of the tune. So, since that day… all we play… is Santana music!”
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oye Cómo Va
Lyrics:
The voice in the beginning says “sabor” which is Spanish for “flavour”. The lyrics are entirely in Spanish.
Oye como va
Mi ritmo
Bueno pa’ gozar
Mulata
Click for full lyrics
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 70s
Find more songs to enjoy: Bang a Gong song finder
BONUS SONG
Oye Cómo Va by Tito Puente
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