The Doors Best Songs

For a band whose entire viable body of work had been completely compiled by the early 1970s, California quartet The Doors continues to fascinate the imagination of rock fans the world over -- largely due to the ever-present legend that surrounds its long-deceased rock god frontman, vocalist-poet Jim Morrison.

The Lizard King, as Morrison is reverently remembered, died somewhat mysteriously in a bathtub in Paris during the summer of 1971. Desite his absence, his presence in the genre ranks alongside that of Jimi Hendrix as being among the most influential personalities to exit the rock and roll game while still in the prime of their youth.

Morrison literally drifted into an organized music opportunity by chance, having penned a few songs in his free time before running into a fellow UCLA film school student, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, on the beach in southern California in the summer of 1965. After sharing their musical visions, the two decided at that moment to form a band. Before the year was over, they had recruited drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robbie Krieger to fill out their lineup.

After more than a year of seasoning playing the Los Angeles club scene, The Doors signed to major label Elektra Records and released their eponymous debut LP in early 1967. More than half of the record's eleven songs went on to become regulars on rock radio across the United States, an unheard-of feat for any band not named the Beatles during that era. "Break On Through (To The Other Side)" rocked hard in the vein of England's popular trio Cream, "Back Door Man" interpreted blues with a Yardbirds-esque experimental bent, and individually, "Soul Kitchen", "The Crystal Ship", "Twentieth Century Fox" and "Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)" each received their fair share of attention on eclectic Summer Of Love FM playlists.

Two other songs from The Doors, however, rose in stature above even those heavyweights. "Light My Fire" took a simple two-chord progression and turned it into a smoldering sexual workout. Krieger's scorching guitar solo and Morrison's earnest croon sold over a million 45s and dominated airwaves for months. But looming just as large at the end of the album was Morrison's incestuous noir tale "The End". The most experimental disc jockeys of the era braved withering criticism for airing the tune -- which is still hard-pressed to pass obscenity laws decades after its original release. But the exercise in Oedipal violence instantly established Jim Morrison as a major persona to be reckoned with in the fast-evolving phenomenon of album-centric rock and roll.

As was the custom in the 1960s, The Doors followed up their wildly successful debut collection right away, releasing Strange Days before the end of 1967. Each of the LP's two sides kicked off with a decidedly strange theme, the airy title track "Strange Days" on Side One and the almost Russian-sounding progression in the Sergeant Pepper-influenced singalong, "People Are Strange". And while it wasn't the smash that "Light My Fire" had been, the bouncy "Love Me Two Times" became another radio staple for the group. Strange Days closed with another fan favorite, "When The Music's Over": a less-controversial but no-less-unconventional monologue-centered marathon complementing "The End".

During the chaotic summer of 1968 the band unveiled their lone chart-topping album, Waiting For The Sun. Fueled by the enormous popularity of the Number One single that it spawned -- the simple words and overdriven keyboards featured on the radio-friendly "Hello, I Love You" -- Waiting remained largely in character with The Doors' first two albums. Save, perhaps, for the downright creepy Manzarek keyboard flourishes and other-worldly Morrison imagery that permeated "Not To Touch The Earth". The album also offered an obligatory Vietnam War protest in an albeit relatively tame "The Unknown Soldier".

By this point, Morrison had developed his now-infamous reputation for erratic behavior, both onstage and off. Morrison's various run-ins with venues and the law across the United States only served to enhance his reputation as a counterculture icon, and he didn't curb his envelope-pushing ways as the group shifted their sound somewhat for 1969's The Soft Parade. The LP's feature radio track, "Touch Me", greeted fans with a slick, prominent brass section, which helped the 45 to a Top Three pop chart peak. The album's three other singles, though, were notably coolly received throughout the duration of the year, and none of the songs on the album outside of "Touch Me" became classic rock regulars.

Morrison continued to slowly descend into a Syd Barrett-like alienating state heading into 1970, as The Doors plowed ahead with their fifth album, Morrison Hotel, released that spring. The straightforward, driving "Roadhouse Blues" became an instant classic. Fans also latched onto the light-and-heavy bolero dynamic of "Waiting For The Sun" and the quirky tracks that followed it on Side One, "You Make Me Real" and "Peace Frog".

After the release of Hotel, Morrison effectively retired from live performance with The Doors -- less than a week after his 27th birthday. In retrospect, it's remarkable that the engimatic singer was capable of recording his final album with the band, 1971's L.A. Woman. The record hearkened back to the group's early efforts, featuring a bevy of memorable tracks. "Riders On The Storm" may have been the only time anyone had ever heard it raining in Los Angeles, while "Love Her Madly" told of a different aspect of life in SoCal. L.A. Woman's title track seemed to encapsulate life on L.A.'s endless freeways, chugging along frantically toward an unknown fate.

That fate ultimately turned out to be the untimely demise of Morrison himself. The singer left the band in the spring of 1971, settling into the existence of a secluded writer in Paris, France, accompanied by his sometime girlfriend. Within three months, Morrison had departed the planet. The rest of The Doors half-heartedly attempted to continue the band devoid of their charismatic heart, but eventually folded up the tent in 1973.

In spirit, however, Jim Morrison lives on in the body of work that he left behind with his overshadowing presence in the music of one of the greatest bands that the 1960s ever produced: The Doors.