The Doors’ 30 most essential songs, ranked
To mark Jim Morrison's 80th birthday, we're looking back at the tracks that continue to define the Doors' lasting legacy
Music Features The Doors
Jim Morrison would’ve turned 80 years old on December 8, 2023, a feat that may seem like an impossibility from our modern perspective when he’s been a dead legend for far longer than he was a living star. Morrison spent roughly five years in the glare of the spotlight: his band, the Doors, released their debut album at the start of 1967 and L.A. Woman, their final album with the singer, arrived just months before his premature death at the age of 27 in July 1971.
In the decades since his death, the Doors have been celebrated and ridiculed. After experiencing considerable revivals in the 1980s and the 1990s—Jim Morrison made the cover of Rolling Stone in 1981 with the tagline “He’s hot, he’s sexy and he’s dead,” while Oliver Stone made a lavish, ludicrous biopic 10 years later—the band’s exploratory psychedelia and sleazy blues-rock have fallen out of fashion in recent years. Listening to the Doors today, though, when the band is nowhere near the center of modern music, the ways they pioneered new sonic territory becomes clear, and, more importantly, their best songs—like the 30 tunes that follow—sound distinctive, strange, and powerful, a heady blend of pretension and earthly pleasure
90 Comments
Are your top 5 just the ones that got the most radio play? That’s what it feels like. ‘Peace Frog’ is waaaaay too low.
“Peace Frog” is a favorite, and would’ve been closer to the top for me as well. But I note that this list is not their best, but rather their most essential songs. Can’t argue with the top 7 in that respect. (I’ve not heard “The End” on the radio that often, though)The main problem with the top of the list is that they’ve been overplayed to death. But if you can hear them with fresh ears and compare it to what was going on with their peers, they remain stunningly original pieces of work. “Break On Through” deserves the #1 spot for sure.
So is Alabama Song.
This dude is constantly shocked that his takes are not universal.
You should read his work over at the Takeout, he’s a 40-something with the palate of a toddler: steak is bad! mayonnaise is icky! raw tomatoes, gross!
I’ve seen it when he makes 40 posts on an article about a show he’s never seen, or something similar. He’s absolutely positive that he’s the main character.
He comments here like it’s his job, and has confused quantity with quality.
… and it appears Murry Chang the Pussy has dismissed your comment.
Its a list from someone that was not even born in 1971. Perhaps a few songs haven’t aged well, but 90% is quite listenable today. The Doors are still one of my favorites to listen while driving about.
I go back and forth as that being my favorite, or L.A. Woman…or…well, it’s a long list sometimes. If it weren’t for the spoken word bit it would be my favorite no question. I know it was his thing, but it occurs just a little too often for me. That being said they are near the top of the list of bands I wish I could have seen live.
If Morrison was alive, he’d be 80…. Ugh, I am old now.
Paul McCartney is alive and he’s 81.
Keith Richards is alive and he’s 112! You know, judging by his looks…
Yeah but also if Jim Morrison was 80, he’d be dead.
I agree with movie version Lester Bangs on “The Doors”
Bangs reminds me of Christgau: they love it when rock n’ roll is loud and dumb. Why? So they can feel intellectually superior and aren’t threatened by material that actually challenges brain cells.
I love The Guess Who, and think of this sequence often. Everyone I’ve ever tried to get into The Guess Who has asked me if I was pranking them afterwards. Oh well. (I like The Doors, too. I have room for both.)
Oh, I don’t like the Doors. But the Guess Who are damn good.
I like them both. The Guess Who is one of the great underrated bands, like Three Dog Night. Both of those groups had a lot of hits.
I don’t know how anyone can’t be into The Guess Who.
I gave them the 2-disc Anthology compilation, so it went beyond the big singles and threw in a lot of their less well-known singles and deep cuts. “Dancin’ Fool”, “Star Baby”, “When The Band Was Singin’ (Shakin All Over)”- I fell in love with all that stuff and was thrilled to explore beyond their biggest singles. But I guess it was too much for them.
Even as a teen in the ‘80s, if it wasn’t “American Woman” it didn’t really get airplay on the ‘classic rock’ stations. I discovered their other songs in my 20’s.
Man, I fucking miss that guy.
Me too…wish he could have conquered those demons. Note: this applies to both Morrison and Seymour-Hoffman.
Would you consider changing your lyric to something less controversial like, uh, oh, I dunno, maybe “Girl we couldn’t get much…slideshow!”
Well show me the wayTo the next slideshow articleOh don’t ask whyOh don’t ask why
Well I woke up this mornin’ and I got myself a slideshow!
The Kinja’s uncertainAnd the end is always near
Break on through to the other slide!
Hello, I love you, now I’ll plow your comment history looking for the n-word!
necktie… nectar… nickel… noodle?
Naggers.
oh, they annoy me.
This one right here.
SLIDE SHOW!
Sounds like the Byrds though, man.
Try it with a Latin beat.
Father?Yes, son?I want a slideshow.
This is the show, beautiful kinjaThis is the show, my only kinjaThe show of our elaborate slidesThe show of everything that clickbaits
RIDE THE SNAKE
“Peace Frog” should be in the Top 10.
Of course by the time the Doors recorded LA Woman, Morrison’s voice was shit because he didn’t take care of it. Dying was the best thing he could have done to maintain his legacy.
I’m honestly not sure how I feel about The Doors as I’ve gotten older. They do have some good stuff, even a couple of bangers, but as I’ve gotten older it also seems pretty dated and pretentious.
The more they really thought they were on to something sophisticated or meaningful, the more junior high it sounds. They were best when they kept things simple (e.g., Break on Through, Five to One, etc.), mostly on that first record.Fame and acclaim ruin a lot of acts, but the extent to which Morrisson climbed into his own ass after making it big may be unparalleled. He’s a decent blues vocalist who became convinced that he was a profound poet and artist. He wasn’t.
But LA Woman is one of their best albums. I think Morrison’s problems were less about ego (not that it wasn’t a factor) and more about a combo of baby boomer trauma and way too many drugs – he was a fucked up dude who just didn’t show up as often as he should have. But all the albums have some serious grooves, and some serious belting.
I would argue that the shtick got stale even for them by then, and LA Woman is more of a return to the start than an extension of the previous few records.But I’m perplexed by the argument that Morrison becoming convinced that his writing was transcendent isn’t one of the things that fucked the Doors up. The drugs were bad for his life, but not especially for the music. Him thinking he was the Rimbaud of his generation instead of a strong blues rock singer made much of their catalogue cringey to adult ears.
LA Woman is more of a return to the start than an extension of the previous few records.
I don’t think it sounds too far off from Morrison Hotel, especially that album’s second half. Both those albums diminish the psych influence by a fair bit in favor of more blues rock.
Fair; what I ought to have said is that LA Woman is the fulfillment of a return to form that began with the previous record (but wasn’t as successful). Maybe that’s overstated, but the fact remains that their discography is bookended by their best records, and most of the middle is pretty embarrassing. I mean, not as bad as Other Voices or fucking American Prayer, but still. The more ambitious, experimental, whatever you want to call it that they got, the worse they were.
Those are easily their best–particularly the bluesy songs. If it weren’t for the weird ass poetry in the middle of it, I think Peace Frog would be one of the best rock/blues songs ever written. That fucking opening riff is to die for, and then the bass coming in? Just an amazing song.
I’m sort of in the same place. And I’m sorry, but there’s a lot of stuff on this list that doesn’t rise above the level of “filler.” Maybe a dozen genuinely good songs?
I hated them in my teen/college years, but I’ve realized that had more to do with the people who were constantly playing them than anything else. Their music is fine, and certainly unique. It’s hard to misidentify a Doors tune as belonging to any other artist.
“I hated them in my teen/college years, but I’ve realized that had more to do with the people who were constantly playing them than anything else.”This is pretty much why The Doors are not, for lack of a better term, a cool band to like.And I say that as someone who was constantly playing them when I was that age one would most be expected to be obsessed with The Doors.Today, I am decades past that age, but I still love The Doors, and I make no apologies.
I’ve never really liked them, but I wearily hang a little “Maybe I’ll check out something other than the tired radio shit” on it because clearly they were a big influence on Warrell Dane.
The Dead Milkmen were skewering the Doors in 1985 in “Bitchin’ Camaro” but… On the other hand the Kids in the Hall somewhat venerated them in a classic skit and I really like The Soft Parade;
We were teenagers. The formula was perfect.
This is a funny list because The End is probably the worst song ever written.
If you want to torture yourself, listen to Nico’s version. I say this as a Nico fan lol
I genuinely think “When the Music’s Over” is a much better magnum opus’ as far as the Doors’ Opus…es go. I think “The End” gets so much love due to being forever paired in any movie fan’s heart with Coppola’s brilliant use of it in the opening of Apocalypse Now. Still one of the all time great opening scenes of any film.
Major points for including Land Ho!, my personal fav. But no, Not To Touch the Earth or Wild Child? And Riders is by far #1 for me.
What I hope happens here is that someone will point out the Doors appeal to a specific post-war socio-cultural cohort and dismiss them entirely based on that association. It’s that kind of incisive criticism we need right now.
You can’t “become” a Doors fan, man! You’re either born a Doors fan or you’re not!
I just realized I really should have gone with a KitH reference post. Take your star!
KiTH should really be second only to The Simpsons for references around here.
So we’re moving the guy in the $8000 suit down to THIRD?? COME ON!
No, steal a car!
Wait, who told you that?
JIM FUCKIN’ MORRISON TOLD ME, THATS WHO!
How about “none of them,” eh?
It’s hard to appreciate how transformative the Doors were to the music scene when they appeared, unless you were actually living it. Or so I’ve been told by a few boomers who were there; “Break On Through” was evidently a real “holy shit” moment. I feel like the Doors are a band that was hugely important at the time, and had a lot of lasting influence, but aside from their half-dozen or so most well-known songs, haven’t really stuck in the public consciousness as much as, say, the Beatles, or Led Zeppelin.
I grew up listening to the Doors quite a lot, and though I don’t go back to their stuff that often, I still do love listening to it. To some degree that influence came from the fact that Ray Manzarek was a friend of the family, and came over to watch football with my dad fairly often.
Even when Morrison’s voice was haggard, “Break on Through” was still amazing in concert. That song never lost its magic touch.
I’m the same. They were a favorite during those years of mine where I was the right age for the Doors to be a favorite. Now I get surprised when I hear one of their songs come up and revisit them for a few weeks or so…rinse, repeat.
Let’s be honest, but. Jim Morrison isn’t even the most talented James Morrison. Let’s see Jimbo play chords on a fucking trombone.
I’ve tried, but his corpse just lies there moldering.
“Out here on the perimeter, there are no stars”This lives as a notice on a door in my home.
“I’ll tell you this, no eternal reward will forgive us now
For wasting the dawn”One of my favourite lyrics.
The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat) is (fairly obviously) my personal #1.
No “Petition the Lord With Prayer?”
it’s on there. The Soft Parade.
I was so hoping to click on this and find a blank list.
Come on, “Soul Kitchen” belongs at #2. The version that X did on their first album lol
Maybe not as essential as others, but I’ll give a shout out to Indian Summer and End of the Night. For as hip as it is to cite Mazzy Star as an influence, those two tracks are pretty much the root of most of that band’s sound.
Obviously any list like this is going to produce disagreements. Mine is the lack of Spanish Caravan.
Since no one mentioned these: Maggie M’Gill and Orange County Suite
When I saw Peace Frog near the bottom I knew I’d hate this list. That’s one of their only songs that’s actually kind of fun instead of a pretentious dirge.
Oh come on they had a few of those–Roadhouse Blues …though of course, there’s a slightly sinister tinge to it…but how about “Alabama Song” even though there’s a slightly sinister ting…okay yeah I see what you’re saying, even if ghosts do crowd the young child’s fragile, egg-shell mind.
I usually skip the slideshows, but thought I’d give this one a spin. I had to stop when I got to Alabama Song at #27. You should be ashamed.
Favorite deep cuts I would have ranked instead of “Summer’s Almost Gone,” “Been Down So Long,” and “Touch Me” include “My Eyes Have Seen You,” “I Can’t See Your Face in My Mind” and “Cars Hiss By My Window.” I’d probably also move “Hello, I Love You” off for “Yes, The River Knows.”
THE MONK BOUGHT LUNCH
Yeah he bought a little
So, your claim is that their best song is the one written by ROBBIE KRIEGER? Seriously? You know SHIT about the Doors.
Whatever dismissal or hatred toward them then and now stems largely from Morrison’s stature with your girlfriend.