WE’RE pretty sure some fans wouldn’t believe that for Latino band Santana, their first No. 1 hit song was a long time coming—taking the group 30 years before it hit the charts.
The band, led by Carlos Santana, first appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 music chart in 1969 with the song ‘Tango’ but it finally topped the Billboard chart three decades later, thanks to their hit song ‘Smooth’ featuring guitarist Rob Thomas.
The song was released in June 1999 on Santana’s 18th studio album Supernatural as the lead single.
Actually, ‘Smooth’ began as ‘Room 17”m’ by Itaal Shur, who gave the song to Thomas to rewrite the lyrics.
The Matchbox Twenty lead singer revealed in an article for Billboard in 2017 that, after he wrote the song, he spoke with Clive Davis and others about who should sing it.
The initial choice was George Michael but in the end, Santana asked Thomas to sing the vocals on the official version.
Thomas recalled, “It was George I had in my head when I recorded the vocals in the first place. If you listen to the melody and the cadence, it’s an attempt to emulate his style in so many ways.”
After ‘Smooth’ came out, it quickly became the song of the summer as it steadily moved up the music charts, starting a 12-week run at the No. 1 spot in October 1999.
It was Santana’s first-ever chart-topping song, despite being an active band since 1966. With the success of ‘Smooth’, Santana became the musical artist with the longest wait between when its first song charted and when a song became a No. 1 hit.
After three decades, Santana finally reached this milestone.
‘Smooth’ stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 for a total of 58 weeks. The track was also a No. 1 song in Canada and Croatia, while it broke into the Top 10 in several other countries, including the United Kingdom and Ireland.
