"Oye Como Va" is a song written and by Latin jazz and mambo musician Tito Puente in 1963. American rock group Santana's rendition further popularized the song. On Santana's version of the song everything, including the guitar wails and keyboards, follow the original music.
The fact that the phrase "Oye como va" is the title of the song and is sung somewhat separately from the phrase "mi ritmo" makes it easy to interpret the meaning as "Hey, how's it going?" However, the first sentence is actually "Oye como va mi ritmo", meaning "Listen to how my rhythm goes." The voice in the beginning says "Sabor," which is Spanish for "Flavor". A "Mulata" is a woman ("Mulato" being a male) of Caucasian European and Negro African descent. The correct translation of the word "oye" is listen. The translation of the lyrics is thus: "Listen to my rhythm, good for fun, mulata!!"
The song has the classic rhythm and tempo of cha-cha-cha. It has similarities with "Chanchullo" by Israel "Cachao" López. The Latin Beat Magazine writes, "Cachao's tumbaos for his 1937 composition of Rareza de Melitón (later changed to Chanchullo) inspired Tito Puente's signature tune 'Oye Como Va'." On the original recording of the song the voice of Santitos Colon, the Puente orchestra singer at the time, can be heard in the song along with those of Puente and other orchestra musicians. Cachao can be heard playing contrabass in some of Tito Puente's live versions of "Oye Como Va".
The song has had many arrangements and remakes by a number of artists in various tempi. NPR included the song in its "NPR 100: The most important American musical works of the 20th century"
(post is archived)