Friday Song: “Smooth”
A massive hit that crosses and mixes generations and genres is still a blast
I can’t believe it has taken me this long to feature this song — an amazing 1999 collaboration between Rob Thomas and Santana.
It is one of my favorite songs of all time.
The lead single off Santana’s album Supernatural, “Smooth” was an international hit, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and holding there for 12 weeks. It climbed to #1 in Canada and the Top 10 in Australia, Austria, Ireland, and the UK. It won a Grammy for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
Itaal Shur, a songwriter and producer who has worked with Jewel and other artists, heard that Santana was looking for new music for an upcoming album. He was able to listen to some other tracks in the works, but felt there was nothing like other classic Santana hits like “Black Magic Woman” or “Oye Como Va.” Shur went home and wrote a track on guitar with all the arrangements, calling it “Room One Seven.” The record company loved the instrumental and parts of the melodies, but they didn’t like the lyrics. Since Rob Thomas happened to live nearby, he and Shur got together, polished the lyrics, and the song was written.
For Thomas, that was all it was meant to be — a songwriting gig. He suggested George Michael for the vocals, but the record company pressed Thomas to sing it, so he emulated Michael’s style to some degree since that was the voice he’d imagined when he wrote the lyrics and melody.
Many of the lyrics are Thomas’ ode to his Puerto Rican wife, Marisol Maldonado. “My Muñequita” translates to “My Little Doll” in Spanish; Thomas also calls her his “Spanish Harlem Mona Lisa.” Marisol appears in the video.
Thomas and Santana formed a lasting friendship after working on the song.
Thomas realized the song had become huge when he was standing on a street corner in Manhattan and a convertible full of girls pulled up with the song blasting on the car radio. A short time later, on a trip to Los Angeles, he ran into Jason Newsted of Metallica coming out of an elevator, who he’d never met. Newsted recognized him and told him he loved the song.
Smooth.
Enjoy!