Europa (Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile)

Tom Coster and Carlos Santana wrote it. The album version runs 5:06 and the radio edit 3:37; it was recorded at Wally Heider Studios with David Rubinson producing, and we have no exact date. Wikipedia, partly uncited and repeated by Inside MusiCast, says that Santana had an earlier piece with the song's first lick, shelved, and revisited it with Coster while on tour with Earth, Wind and Fire in Manchester, England, renaming it. An opinion column says he played the demo to Maurice White, who urged him to make it a hit, which we could not verify. The progression has 16 bars following the circle of fifths, compared to "Autumn Leaves". A reviewer of the Amigos reissue noted a slower, meditative tempo and two distinct guitar tones, comparing it to "Samba Pa Ti"; a fan site names the 1993 live version on Sacred Fire as the best recording.

As a single it reached 1 in Spain in July 1976, 2 in Italy, 6 in Switzerland, 29 in the Netherlands and 32 in Belgium's Wallonia. Wikipedia lists covers by Gato Barbieri (Caliente!, 1976), Dyango with Paco de Lucia (1990, with lyrics), Vital Information with Frank Gambale (1991), Masayoshi Takanaka (1993), Jimmy Sommers (2006), Nils (2009), Blake Aaron (2015) and Candy Dulfer, live in Amsterdam on September 6, 2019. Setlist-derived pages show it played at the Greek Theatre on October 1, 2004, Washington on April 5, 2016, Auburn, Washington on June 25, 2022 and Las Vegas on May 24, 2025. Wikipedia also cites a weakly sourced claim, from a Russian book and forum post, that Arno Babajanian said its first eight measures resemble his 1959 "Mosty". We do not know whether our upload is the studio or a live version.