“Light My Fire” by The Doors

"Light My Fire" is the song that set the Doors ablaze. It's on the band's self-titled debut album, cut in 1966 and released on Elektra in January 1967, and while the whole group shares the credit, guitarist Robby Krieger wrote most of it. It stands among the first psychedelic rock records, and its erotic words and adventurous shape made it an anthem for the counterculture.

Ray Manzarek's keyboard spirals and swirls, John Densmore's drums swing with a jazzy lilt, Krieger's guitar winds snakelike around it all, and Jim Morrison sings with a lazy, seductive heat. On the album the band takes its time, letting the song drift and burn well past what the single would allow. Paul A. Rothchild produced it and Bruce Botnick engineered.

Cut down for a single in April 1967, it held the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, and it came back onto that chart the next year when José Feliciano's cover took off.

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