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and Ray Manzarek (keyboards) met while they were students at UCLA's film school. Robbie Krieger (guitar) and John Densmore (drums) were in a band called The Psychedelic Rangers, and knew Manzarek through their meditation classes. Borrowing the name from The Doors Of Perception, a novel by Aldous Huxley, the group soon recorded a demo tape, and in the summer of 1966 began working as the house band at the Whisky-a-Go-Go, where they were discovered by Elektra executives. In 1967 the Doors released their self-titled debut album, which featured the #1 breakout hit "Light My Fire." According to Rolling Stone magazine, "Morrison's image as the embodiment of dark psychological impulses was established quickly, even as he was being featured in such teen magazines as 16." Strange Days (Number Three, 1967) and Waiting for the Sun (Number One, 1968) also included hit singles and became best-selling albums. Morrison was arrested for public indecency at a Miami concert in 1969, and although the charges were dropped, the band's reputation suffered. With The Soft Parade (1969), many classic rock aficionados accused the Doors of being pop sellouts, but the group rebounded with the final two albums they recorded with Morrison, which both drew on hardcore blues rock, particularly 1971's L.A. Woman. Soon after was recorded, Morrison moved to Paris with his wife to lived in seclusion. He died of heart failure, the result of a suspected drug overdose, in his bathtub in 1971 at age 27.



After the death of Morrison, the remaining Doors recorded two albums with little success, and ultimately split up to pursue other projects. Meanwhile, the cult of Jim Morrison grew, particularly with the release of the Morrison biography, No One Here Gets Out Alive. In fact, sales of Doors albums in 1980 alone topped all previous figures. And nothing, in subsequent years, has done anything to curb the endless fascination with Jim Morrison and demand for his music. In 2006, the year before the 40th anniversary of the release of the Doors debut album, Perception, yet another box set of the band's complete studio recordings, appeared. In the same year, The Doors received a lifetime achievement award at the Grammys and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.