THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

235-The Doors-Light My Fire.

1967-Number 49 single. When it was re-issued in 1991 it reached Number 7.

Best Bit-At 3.12.The band took their name from the title of Aldous Huxley’s 1954 book ‘The Doors of Perception,’ itself derived from a line in William Blake’s ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,’ a work written between 1790-1793. “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.”

The Doors (see also best songs 133) were formed in Los Angeles, California, United States, in 1965 by Jim Morrison. (1943-1971) (lead vocals) and Ray Manzarek, (1939-2013) (keyboards) who had known of each other from having earlier attended the ‘UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.’ The classic line up was completed in the same year by Robby Krieger, (guitar) and John Densmore, (drums) both of them were also local musicians from Los Angeles. Up until the death of Jim Morrison in 1971, The Doors had released six studio Albums, and following his death the remaining three band members released a further two studio Albums in 1971, (‘Other Voices’) and in 1972 (‘Full Circle.’) The Doors officially split in 1973, but in 1978 a ninth and final studio Album (‘An American Prayer’) was put together by the three remaining members which featured Morrison’s poetry, recorded by Morrison, from around 1969-1971, and performed by Morrison in spoken word form.

‘Light My Fire’ was the second single released by The Doors in January 1967, and later added to their debut studio Album ‘The Doors’ in April 1967. Most of ‘Light My Fire’ was written by Robby Krieger, but all four band members received the writing credits, which was what they always did at that time. Morrison had been the bands main writer, but he asked the other members to contribute, Krieger has said,’ I asked Jim what I should write about? He said,’Something universal, which wont disappear two years from now. Something that people can interpret themselves.’ I said to myself I’d write about the four elements, earth, air, fire, and water, I picked fire as I loved the Stones song ‘Play With Fire,’ (side ‘B’ of The Rolling Stones 1965 UK Number 1 single ‘The Last Time’) Krieger came up with the melody and wrote the majority of the lyrics, but it was Morrison who added the second verse ‘Our love become a funeral pyre,’ It was Manzarek who developed the the songs Organ part, and the drummer Densmore came up with the rhythm. The theme of the song is about leaving your inhibitions behind in flames of passion.

‘Light My Fire’ was the breakthrough song for The Doors spending three weeks at Number 1 on Billboard in America in 1967, and has bone on to sell in excess of 1 million copies. On initial release it failed to reach the UK top 40, but did finally become a hit in 1991, when reaching Number 7, after revived interest in the band following the Oliver Stone film biopic ‘The Doors.’

‘Light My Fire’ has been covered many times, including as early as 1968, when the Puero Rican vocalist Jose Feliciano took his ‘Latin’ influenced version to Number 3 on Billboard, just a year after The Doors, the song also peaked at Number 6 in the UK. In 1979 the American singer Ami Stewart released a Disco version of ‘Light My Fire’ as part of a medley titled ‘137 Disco Heaven,’ which reached Number 5 in the UK, but only made Number 69 on Billboard. The most successful UK hit version of the song was in 2002 when the English singer Will Young topped the UK chart for two weeks with his rendition that was in the same style as the Jose Feliciano version.

‘You know that it would be untrue, you know that I would be a liar, if I was to say to you, girl we couldn’t get much higher.’