July 29, 2017 marks 50 years since the Doors hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with “Light My Fire,” one of the biggest songs from the Summer of Love and the band’s best-selling single of all time. Doors fans around the world are encouraged to celebrate this milestone by playing “Light My Fire” at 7:29pm on July 29th!
Guitarist Robby Krieger wrote most of “Light My Fire,” which also happened to be the first song he ever wrote. The track – along with the Doors’ first single “Break On Through (To The Other Side)” – helped fuel the band’s early success and made stars of Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, and Krieger.
Released in May 1967, “Light My Fire” was the second single from the Doors’ eponymous debut, a multi-platinum classic that’s considered by many today to be among rock’s finest debut albums. The song entered the Billboard chart on June 3, and after a few weeks it had climbed to the top, reaching number one on July 29, 1967. Both “Light My Fire” and the Doors’ debut album have been inducted in to the Grammy® Hall Of Fame and the latter has also been added to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.
In September 1967, the song was at the center of controversy when the Doors performed “Light My Fire” live on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Instead of altering the lyric “girl, we couldn’t get much higher” to appease the show’s producer, Morrison sang the original live. The incident ended any possibility of the group returning to the show, but it became part of the band’s legend and a memorable expression of its rebellious spirit. When producers informed The Doors that they had been banned from the show in the future, Morrison reportedly replied, “Hey, man, we just did the Sullivan show.”
Rhino commemorates the 50th anniversary with two new releases available now: a limited edition reproduction of the original 7” single that was released in Japan in 1967 and a new digital and streaming maxi-single with three different versions of “Light My Fire.”
“Light My Fire” will also be included in the upcoming Doors The Singles release on September 15. The collection includes every single and B-side the band released in the U.S., all gathered together for the first time. The Singles is available in a variety of physical and digital formats including a limited edition vinyl boxed set featuring twenty 7” replicas of all of the Doors’ singles.
