The Doors released their debut album: January 4, 1967

First posted 1/4/2012; updated 1/4/2020.

The Doors The Doors

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Released: January 4, 1967 Charted: March 25, 1967 Peak: 2 US, 43 UK, 42 CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 0.6 UK, 12.5 world (includes US and UK) Genre: classic rock

Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.) Break on Through to the Other Side [2:29] (4/8/67, #64 UK) Soul Kitchen [3:35] The Crystal Ship [2:34] Twentieth Century Fox [2:33] Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) (Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill) [3:20] Light My Fire [7:06] (6/3/67, #1 US, #1 CB, #1 HR, #7 UK, #2 CN, #16 AU, sales: 1.0 million) Back Door Man (Chester Burnett/Willie Dixon) [3:34] I Looked at You [2:22] End of the Night [2:42] Take It As It Comes [2:23] The End [11:41] Songs written by Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 44:00 The Players: Jim Morrison (vocals) Ray Manzarek (keyboards) Robby Krieger (guitar, bass) John Densmore (drums, percussion)

Rating: 4.643 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings) Quotable: “One of the best first-time outings in rock history” – Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide Awards:

About the Album: The Doors is “a tremendous debut album, and indeed one of the best first-time outings in rock history.” AMG The group “more than fulfilled the promise of their infamously challenging gigs around Los Angeles throughout the previous year.” AZ The album is an “amalgam…that sounds fully psychedelic” BL as it introduces “the band’s fusion of rock, blues, classical, jazz, and poetry with a knockout punch.” AMG “Light My Fire was the cut that topped the charts and established the group as stars, but most of the rest of the album is just as impressive, including some of their best songs: the propulsive Break On Through (their first single), the beguiling Oriental mystery of The Crystal Ship, the mysterious End of the Night, Take It as It Comes (one of several tunes besides ‘Light My Fire’ that also had hit potential), and the stomping rock of Soul Kitchen and Twentieth Century Fox.” AMG “Whether belting out a standard like Back Door Man or talk-singing such originals as ‘The Crystal Ship’ and I Looked at You, leather-clad vocalist Jim Morrison exuded both sensuality and menace.” AZ “Though he fancied himself a poet, Morrison ultimately had greater impact on the nation’s leather pants industry.” BL “The 11-minute Oedipal drama The End was the group at its most daring and, some would contend, overambitious.” AMG It “helped rewrite the rules on rock song composition” AZ and provided a “haunting cap to an album whose nonstop melodicism and dynamic tension would never be equaled by the group again, let alone bettered.” AMG Robbie Krieger’s “lean, spidery guitar” AMG and “Ray Manzarek’s swirling organ provided the melodic backbone for the apocalyptic hoodoo of Jim Morrison” BL and his “captivating vocals and probing prose.” AMGThe group’s collective instrumental talents “virtually defined the rock-blues-jazz-classical amalgam that was acid-rock.” AZ Notes: A 40th anniversary edition added two versions of “Moonlight Drive” and the song “Indian Summer,” recorded in August 1966. A 50th anniversary edition added a second version of the album in mono as well as a live set from 1967.

Review Sources: The Doors’ DMDB Encyclopedia entry AMG All Music Guide review by Richie Unterberger AZ Amazon.com review by Billy Altman BL Blender Magazine’s 100 Greatest American Albums (10/08)