About The Doors

The Doors were groundbreaking, controversial, unpredictable, original and all the other adjectives that make for a legendary rock band.  Now more than 40 years later, The Doors remain one of the most influential forces in rock history and popular culture.

Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore came together as The Doors in September of 1965.  Jim was the lead singer, Robby was the guitarist, Manzarek played keys and Densmore was on drums.  The bass player?  At live shows that job would fall to Manzarek’s left hand which worked magic on the Fender Rhodes Piano Bass, and added to the band’s distinctive sound.  It’s also notable that each member of the band contributed as songwriters, which figures heavily into the unique essence that is The Doors.

They ascended quickly through the LA club scene and were signed to Elektra after a mind-blowing show at the Whisky a Go Go.  They recorded their self-entitled debut album in August of ’66, and blazed onto the charts the following January with songs like “Break On Through,” “Light My Fire,” and an eleven-minute “The End.”  An appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show cemented their status as a counter-culture rebels when Morrison went against the producer’s request to replace the lyric “higher” with “better” during a performance of “Light My Fire.”

One month later the band’s second album, STRANGE DAYS carried forward with their experimental sound and included future classics like “People Are Strange” and “Love Me Two Times.”

The Doors maintained a steady release schedule with WAITING FOR THE SUN in ’68 which would be their first album to reach #1.  The single, “Hello I Love You” was also #1.

THE SOFT PARADE was released in July of ’69 and features brass and strings in the arrangements.  Some say it is their most “popish” record.  It would go to be the band’s fourth Top 10 album in a row.

MORRISON HOTEL followed in February of ’70 and presented a bluesier rock sound.  It opens with “Roadhouse Blues” and includes songs like “Waiting For The Sun” and “Peace Frog.”  The critics and fans were pleased.  Rock Magazine called it “their ballsiest (and best) album to date.”

L.A. WOMAN would come out in April of ’71.  The singles “L.A. Woman,” “Love Her Madly,” and “Riders On The Storm” have gone on to become huge rock classics.  Sadly, it would be Morrison’s swansong as his death would come 3 months later in Paris.

Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore would release two more albums as The Doors, OTHER VOICES and FULL CIRCLE.  They also composed the music to accompany a 1969 recording of Morrison’s poetry, AN AMERICAN PRAYER.

The legacy and the power of The Doors lives on.  Thanks to its genre-bending creativity, and its relentless reach into new and still unexplored realms - the music is just as relevant today as it was 40 years ago.