Santana

Santana's most essential songs are drawn primarily from his first three albums with a unit that remained basically intact, with guitarist Neal Schon and organist Greg Rollie fronting the band's impressive Latin percussion section. Their cover of Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va" is a Santana signature, along with driving numbers like "Jingo" and "Nobody to Depend On."

The band's mid-career officially started with the jazz-fusion influenced Caravanserai, yielding cuts like "Song of the Wind" and "La Frente del Ritmo." The more recent collaboration with Michelle Branch, "The Game of Love" is here, as well as the Grammy-winning guitar explosion, "Blues for Salvador."

Some endearing rarities: the extended "Freeway" jam from Live at the Fillmore, a jazz-rock reworking of Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" from the little-known Brothers album featuring Santana siblings. Another interesting nugget is "É Papa Ré" from the generally underwhelming Zebop! album. And it doesn't get more spiritual than "Bliss: The Eternal Now."

Carlos Santana is one of the most important guitarists and pop musicians of the classic rock era, but he enjoyed an unprecedented comeback at the turn of the century. He invented a style of Afro-Cuban-tinged rock that has often been imitated but never quite duplicated. His music ranges from the massively popular Latin rock of his early albums to very experimental forays into jazz fusion, and finally a new formula of pop- and soul-flavored rock that won him a new generation of fans in 2000.