She's trying to make a devil out of me

"Black Magic Woman" is a song written by British blues-rock guitarist and founding member of the band Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green, and first appeared as a Fleetwood Mac single in various countries in 1968 and subsequently on the 1969 Fleetwood Mac compilation albums English Rose (US) and The Pious Bird Of Good Omen (UK). It became a classic hit by Grammy Award-winning Mexican-born American Latin rock musician and guitarist Carlos Santana in 1970, reaching #4 in the U.S. charts, after appearing on their Abraxas album, and has since become more closely associated with Santana than Fleetwood Mac.

Although not nearly as popular as Santana's arrangement two years later, "Black Magic Woman" nevertheless became a fairly popular blues-rock hit for Fleetwood Mac, peaking at #37 in the UK Singles Chart.

Santana’s version of the song, whose full title is "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen," was adapted from Gabor Szabo's 1967 "Gypsy Queen," a mix of jazz, Hungarian folk and Latin rhythms, and Fleetwood Mac's own "Black Magic Woman," and recorded in 1970. The song became one of Carlos Santana's staples and arguably his most popular song, along with "Oye Como Va." Abraxas reached #1 on the charts and hit quadruple platinum in 1986, partially thanks to "Black Magic Woman."

A highly regarded figure in the British blues movement, Peter Green inspired B. B. King to say, "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats." Green's playing was marked with a distinctive keen vibrato and economy of style, as well as a unique out of phase sound from his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard.

He gives us the cold sweats too. Brrr…

See you backstage at Tuck Shop this Wednesday, from 8.30 pm, and Saturday, Halloween party, from 10.00 pm.