“Oye Como Va” immediately grabbed audiences and became a worldwide hit when Santana released the song in 1970. Carlos Santana & Co. introduced plenty of listeners to the song with their version. Others knew it as a cover of the song originated by the legendary bandleader Tito Puente.
Videos by American Songwriter
How did Puente come up with the idea for such a catchy number? What made Carlos Santana think he could put his own spin on it and make it work? And what exactly do those Spanish lyrics mean? Read on for the answers about this song that has leapfrogged genres and withstood the test of time.
Tito Time
As a bandleader, instrumentalist, and composer, Tito Puente helped popularize a wide range of Latin music genres in Latin America. In 1963, he wrote “Oye Como Va.” The song’s unique musical phrasing can be traced back to several different sources, most notably a 1930s song entitled “Chon Chu Yo” and a mambo from the ’50s called “Chanchullo.” Puente synthesized those influences into a relentlessly catchy cha-cha-cha groove with simple, partying lyrics.
Puente’s song didn’t quite break through to the mainstream in the U.S., but it certainly swept through Latin communities. One of the folks who took a shine to it was Santana, who at the time of the song’s initial release was a 16-year-old guitar wizard already touring professionally. He’d remember “Oye Como Va,” and he called upon it again when his nascent band needed it most.
A Second Helping of Santana
The band Santana put together in San Francisco in the late ’60s brought to bear a wide swath of influences. They could tackle the knottiest psychedelic rock, but they also paid homage to Latin rhythms to keep listeners’ feet moving. The year 1969 witnessed their self-titled debut album, which included a top 10 cover of the blues song “Evil Ways,” and their stellar performance at the Woodstock festival, which immediately propelled Santana to guitar-hero status.
Needless to say, they needed a second album that would sustain that momentum. They hired Fred Catero to take over as producer and set out to both stay true to their jam-band instincts, while still paying heed to the mainstream rock and pop audiences that dug their debut. That meant song selection was crucial for the album that would be entitled Abraxas when released in 1970.
Santana wanted to record “Oye Como Va,” but met some resistance from other members of the band (which, at the time, also included keyboardist singer Gregg Rolie, bassist David Brown, drummer Michael Shreve, and percussionists Jose “Chepito” Areas and Michael Carabello). As Santana told Guitarplayer.com in a 2021 interview, he wisely stuck to his guns.
“Other things were a little challenging, because some people had a different idea of what was rock and roll and what was not,” he remembered of the song selection process. “I had to put my foot down for ‘Oye Como Va’ because I thought it was like ‘Louie Louie’—a forever Friday and Saturday party song. There are certain songs, like ‘Who Let the Dogs Out,’ ‘Macarena,’ or ‘La Bamba,’ that go viral really quickly. I had a feeling that ‘Oye Como Va’ was that kind of party song that makes people drop their sorrows or problems.”
Santana must have been able to sense what his band could do with the song. Puente’s original features a chunky rhythm that doesn’t veer far from the cha-cha template. But with Carabello and Areas adding spicy textures on percussion and the rhythm section of Brown and Shreve tossing a little bit of swing into the proceedings, their version of ‘Oye Como Va’ takes on a much looser feel.
It also didn’t hurt that the lead instrumentalists provided such flavor. Santana delivers melodic guitar lines of impressive flexibility, while Rolie occasionally deviates from the main instrumental figure to pump up the psychedelic vibes with swirling organ runs. The end result is a song that stays true to its roots, while also veering off to some fascinating side roads along the way.
What is the Meaning of “One Como Va?”
Even though “Oye Como Va” contains just a few lines worth of lyrical content, that hasn’t stopped it from confounding listeners, who often disagree about the meaning. The title phrase essentially means “How’s it going?” But within the context of the song, that phrase throws the rest of the translation a bit off-kilter.
Perhaps the best way to get the straight skinny on the lyrics is to go to the source. When asked about the song’s repeated two-line phrase (Oye como va, mi ritmo / Bueno pa’ gozar, mulata), Puente had this to say to NPR:
“Oye Como Va—that means: listen to how it goes, come and enjoy it. That’s what the lyrics mean,” he said. “It’s a cha-cha, they call it. That’s a Cuban rhythm, what was very popular in them days and it still is. And people dance to that type of music.”
People dance to it indeed, and they’ve been doing so ever since Puente created the song. Once Santana got hold of it, “Oye Como Va” morphed into something that went beyond the basic cha-cha and became the song of 1,000 dances.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
