A Blast From the Past #9
This week’s Blast From the Past is The Doors’ song, “Light My Fire!“, from their album “The Doors”.
The Doors perfoming “Light My Fire!” on The Ed Sullivan Show.
“Light My Fire” was recorded in August 1966and released the first week of January 1967 on The Doors debut album. The song spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100″ chart, and one week on the Cashbox Top 100 number-one singles of 1967, nearly a year after its recording.
The song especially beacame a hit after The Doors live perfomance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The Doors were asked by producer Bob Precht, Sullivan’s son-in-law, to change the line “girl, we couldn’t get much higher”, as the sponsors were uncomfortable with the possible reference to drug-taking. The band agreed to do so, and did a rehearsal using the amended lyrics – however, during the live performance, the band’s lead singer Jim Morrison sang the original lyric. Ed Sullivan did not shake Morrison’s hand as he left the stage. The band had been negotiating a seven-episode deal with the producers, but after breaking the agreement not to perform the line, they were informed they would never do the Sullivan show again. Morrison’s response was “We ‘did’ Sullivan.”
Most of the lyrics were written by Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger. Jim Morrison wrote some of the second verse, and Ray Manzarek (piano) came up with the organ intro. “Light my Fire!” ended up being the signature song for the Doors.
Watch all “A Blast From the Past” here.
