Each week, SPIN digs into the catalogs of great artists and highlights songs you might not know for our Deep Cut Friday series.

Carlos Santana is instantly recognizable as a guitarist—you can probably identify his distinctive tone and soaring melodicism in the first two seconds of one of his solos. His singing voice, however, is a bit less famous. The early hits of his band Santana were often sung by keyboardist Gregg Rolie, with the guitarist as one of several members joining in on backing vocals. Carlos Santana’s first solo songwriting credit, which he’s cited as a creative breakthrough, was an instrumental, “Samba Pa Ti,” from 1970’s Abraxas.

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Carlos Santana sang lead on a solo composition for the first time a year later on “Everything’s Coming Our Way” from Santana III. His singing may have been a little less polished than Rolie’s, but he hits a few high notes confidently while delivering a warmly optimistic lyric: “Brand new day, fresh new way to live / The morning is coming, walk with me into the sun.” But since it is, after all, a Santana song, the guitar solo is still the high point of the track.

The multiplatinum Santana III is one of the band’s best and most popular albums, but they only performed “Everything’s Coming Our Way” live a handful of times in the early ’70s. Carlos Santana went on to occasionally sing lead on a few other songs across the band’s catalog, including 1973’s “Love, Devotion & Surrender” and 1982’s “Let Me Inside.”

In 2025, Washington, D.C.-based singer-songwriter Liphus Good covered “Everything’s Coming Our Way” on his album Coda to Prelude.

Three more essential Santana deep cuts:

“Soul Sacrifice”

Santana performed the closing instrumental from the band’s self-titled album at Woodstock, and that performance of “Soul Sacrifice” was prominently featured in the 1970 documentary about the legendary festival.

“Brightest Star”

The simmering slow burner “Brightest Star” from 1981’s Zebop! is one of the best songs Carlos Santana wrote with Scottish singer Alex Ligertwood, who was a member of Santana for about a decade and passed away in April.

“Do You Like the Way” featuring Lauryn Hill and CeeLo Green

After Carlos Santana played on “To Zion” from 1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Hill wrote and produced “Do You Like the Way” for Santana’s 1999 comeback album Supernatural.

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.