Song · The Doors
“Moonlight Drive” by The Doors
From the album Strange Days (1967)
“Moonlight Drive” by The Doors appears on 6 radio countdowns from 5 stations between 1994 and 2012. It was first released in 1967 on the album Strange Days. Its best result is #31 on the WMMR Top 50 Songs of Summer (2012). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,300 classic rock song of all time.
"Moonlight Drive" goes back to before there was a Doors at all. Jim Morrison wrote it, one of his very first songs, on a Venice Beach rooftop in 1965, according to Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman's biography No One Here Gets Out Alive. When he ran into his friend Ray Manzarek and recited some of it, Manzarek was reportedly floored, the two decided to form a band, and Morrison already had the name picked out. It was among the songs on the group's first demos at Trans World Pacific Studios.
The finished take waited for Strange Days, their second album, in 1967, with Paul A. Rothchild producing and Bruce Botnick engineering. It's a blues at heart, tipped slightly off the beat, with Robby Krieger's bottleneck slide giving it an eerie glow. A 2:16 edit backed the "Love Me Two Times" single.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Classic Rock
Hard Rock & Metal
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 802 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1994) | 1000 |
| 1997 | 332 | 102.3 WBAB | WBAB Top 1,023 Rock and Roll Songs of All Time (1997) | 1023 |
| 2010 | 805 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Ultimate Road Trip Songs (2010) | 885 |
| 2011 | 1011 | 100.7 WZLX | 100.7 WZLX Top 1100 Countdown (2011) | 1100 |
| 2012 | 1068 | 100.7 WZLX | 100.7 WZLX Top 1200 Countdown (2012) | 1200 |
| 2012 | 31 | 93.3 WMMR | WMMR Top 50 Songs of Summer (2012) | 49 |
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