The Essential Santana is a
compilation album by
Santana, released on 22 October 2002. The collection is part of a series of Essential sets released by
Columbia Records.
Uniquely among Santana compilations, "
Soul Sacrifice" is included in the studio version from their
first album, not the live performance from
Woodstock.
The compilation contains no songs from the highly successful Supernatural album, despite it being released 3 years before this album. This is because Columbia and Santana's current label
Arista Records were not under common ownership at the time. In 2013, Sony issued another "Essential Santana" 2-CD set which truncates the original's repertoire and does include music from the Arista era, as well as the live Woodstock version of "Soul Sacrifice".