CARLOS SANTANA - COMPOSER UPSET WITH SANTANA'S VERSION OF MOVIE HIT

OSCAR-winning composer JORGE DREXLER has slammed CARLOS SANTANA for the way the guitar great arranged his MOTORCYCLE DIARIES tune for the ACADEMY AWARDS.

The Uruguayan singer/songwriter was upset when Academy Awards bosses opted not to let him perform his own song, AL OTRO LADO DEL RIO, at the prize-giving in March (05) and asked Santana to perform the track with ANTONIO BANDERAS instead.

Drexler sang a verse from the song as his acceptance speech but admits he was far from happy with Santana's treatment of his work.

He says, "I didn't like it. I'm an admirer of Santana... but you cannot just take a song and just play it, just like that... without paying attention to the finer details."

But Drexler admits he has nothing but the utmost respect for the way Banderas approached the performance of his song at the Oscars.

He adds, "He called me every day to tell me about the rehearsals, to show me how the song was going, tell me about the stage design, reassure me, tell me that he was doing everything possible to give the song the respect it deserved."