Song:Winning
Album:The Best Of Santana
Most music fans are probably familiar with Santana's early Latin tinged hits and also his late 90s comeback. But he had a long dry period in the 80s. Winning was a top 20 hit in 1981. And of course it doesn't sound like a Santana song. It sounds like a generic pop rock song. Santana went in that musical direction with the 1978 album Inner Secrets. That album was produced by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter who wrote most of the songs. They are pop music producers. They revived Glen Campbell's career with Rhinestone Cowboy. Carlos Santana may have thought that they could help him score a big hit too. The lead singer at the time was Greg Walker who was unknown before joining Santana. Though a couple of singles charted, the album was a failure. For the 1979 album Marathon, Santana hired producer Keith Olsen who had success with Fleetwood Mac. He also brought in a new singer Scotsman Alex Ligertwood. He was lead singer of Brian Auger's Oblivion Express. The rest of the band was the same as Inner Secrets and like that album, Marathon was a failure. For the 1981 album Zebop!, Olsen was still producer and the band was the same. It looks like he took more time to record it and it was more successful. Winning (written and recorded by Russ Ballard in 1975) reached #17 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was Santana's biggest hit since 1971. The 1982 album Shango was similarly successful with the single Hold On reaching #15 on the Billboard Hot 100. The success did not continue with the 1985 album Beyond Appearances and this led to a long dry period and Santana's departure from Columbia in 1990. Certainly Winning was not one of Santana's more memorable hits. And it wasn't typical of their usual music. But it was a hit and you can get it on this budget comp. Here's the video for Winning by Santana.
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