The Doors

The Doors is the self-titled debut album by The Doors, released on January 4, 1967, on Elektra Records. Produced by Paul A. Rothchild and recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood in August 1966, it captures a band that had spent months honing its material through nightly residencies at the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip.

The album introduced a sound unlike anything else in rock at the time: Ray Manzarek’s Vox Continental organ providing both melody and bass lines (his left hand covering low-end parts typically handled by a bassist), Robby Krieger’s flamenco- and raga-inflected guitar, John Densmore’s jazz-rooted drumming, and Jim Morrison’s baritone voice carrying poetry drawn from William Blake, Aldous Huxley, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Arthur Rimbaud.

The record opens with a declaration of intent in "Break on Through (To the Other Side)" and closes with the sprawling, 11-minute "The End," a piece that began as a simple breakup song and evolved through live improvisation into one of the most radical pieces in the rock canon. The album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in September 1967, held off the top position by the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was added to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry for being culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.