On This Day, July 29, 1967: The Doors land their first #1 with “Light My Fire”

On This Day, July 29, 1967 …

The Doors had their first #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with “Light My Fire,” from their self-titled debut album. The song, written by guitarist Robby Krieger, spent three weeks on the top of the chart.

The album version of the song was over seven minutes in length, but an edited version, cut to about three minutes, was released to radio, taking away most of the tune’s long instrumental break.

The song caused a bit of controversy for The Doors after a performance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The band had been asked to change the line of “girl, we couldn’t get much higher” to take out the reference to drugs. While they originally agreed to do it, frontman Jim Morrison wound up singing the original lyrics live on the air.

“Light My Fire” was one of two #1 singles for the band, the other being “Hello, I Love You,” which went to #1 in August 1968.

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