Rhino/Elektra RecordsJanuary 4, 2017, marked the 50th anniversary of the release of The Doors‘ self-titled debut album, and in celebration of the milestone, a deluxe reissue of the landmark record hits stores today.
The four-disc collection contains CDs featuring remastered editions of the album’s original mono and stereo mixes, a vinyl LP boasting the remastered mono mix and a CD featuring performances from a March 1967 concert the band played at San Francisco’s Matrix club.
The Doors features the chart-topping smash “Light My Fire,” along with such other memorable songs as “Break On Through (To the Other Side),” “The Crystal Ship,” “Twentieth Century Fox” and the dark psychedelic epic “The End.” The album peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200, and has gone on to sell more than 4 million copies in the U.S.
Guitarist Robby Krieger tells ABC Radio that he feels rock fans continue to embrace the album because “I think they sense the fact that we really had some great songs and we really loved playing them. And I think it just sounds so different than anything else that was out there at the time.”
As for Doors drummer John Densmore, he says that among the reasons why he feels that The Doors’ debut has left such an enduring mark on music is that it includes “Light My Fire,” which he calls “the quintessential song of the ’60s,” as well as “The End,” which he describes as “this long, really different poetic stream-of-consciousness thing that was never on any rock album until then.”
Krieger also notes that The Doors hadn’t recorded as a band before making the album, and he credits producer Paul Rothchild and engineer Bruce Botnick for helping make it sound so great.
Check out full details about The Doors‘ deluxe reissue at the band’s website.
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