“Hello I Love You” by The Doors

"Hello I Love You" came off Waiting for the Sun, the Doors' third album, and Elektra put it out as a single in 1968, where it went all the way to the top in the U.S. and Canada. It's the band at their poppiest, a brash, stomping come-on with Ray Manzarek's keyboards buzzing, Robby Krieger's guitar snarling and John Densmore's drums pounding, and Jim Morrison leering over it all, with Doug Lubahn filling in on bass. Paul A. Rothchild and Bruce Botnick produced it, and Botnick engineered and mixed.

The whole band takes the writing credit, though songs by other artists have since been pointed to as likely sources. It was one of the very first things the four of them played together, and they fought Elektra's push to put it on the third album, feeling it was shallow pop they had outgrown. Some fans have never forgiven it either.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.