The album also marked the addition of 16-year-old guitarist Neal Schon to the group.

The original album was recorded at Columbia Studios, San Francisco, and released in both stereo and quadraphonic.

12 in October 1971,[2] while "No One to Depend On", an uncredited adaptation of Willie Bobo's boogaloo standard "Spanish Grease", received significant airplay on FM radio and peaked at No.

The 2005 edition of Guinness World Records stated that was the longest gap between #1 albums ever occurring (a record which is now held by Paul McCartney since his seventeenth solo studio album, Egypt Station, topped the Billboard 200 chart on 2018, his first since his 1982's Tug of War).

The original album was re-released in 1998 with live versions of "Batuka", "Jungle Strut" and a previously unreleased song, "Gumbo", recorded at Fillmore West in 1971 which features lead guitar solos by both Santana and Schon.