Moonflower (album)

Moonflower
Studio album / live album by
ReleasedOctober 1977
Recorded
  • December 1976 (live tracks / Europe)
  • 1977 (studio tracks / San Francisco)
Genre
Length86:50
LabelColumbia
Producer
Santana chronology
Festival
(1977)
Moonflower
(1977)
Inner Secrets
(1978)
Singles from Moonflower
  1. "She's Not There"
    Released: October 1977
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic
Christgau's Record GuideB+
Rolling Stone(not rated)
The Rolling Stone Album Guide

Moonflower is a double album released in 1977 by Santana. The recording features both studio and live tracks, which are interspersed with one another throughout the album. It is perhaps the group's most popular live album, because the 1974 album Lotus did not receive a U.S. domestic release until 1991. It displays a mix between the fusion of Latin and blues rock styles of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the much more experimental and spiritual jazz fusion sound that characterized the band's mid-1970s work. The live material was recorded during the supporting tour for the Amigos album. This is the first of 5 albums with drummer Graham Lear.

A cover version of the Zombies' mid-1960s hit song "She's Not There" was released as a single and peaked at #27. The song was the first Santana recording to hit the Top 40 of the Billboard charts since "No One to Depend On" reached #36 in 1972. The album reached #10 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape charts and was eventually certified platinum, neither of which occurred again until the star-studded Supernatural in 1999.