How One 1971 Song Showed That The Doors Could Soar Even in the Most Difficult Circumstances

Has there ever been a band that endured as much drama as The Doors while still delivering consistently mesmerizing music? They maintained that quality right up to their final LP, which included the slyly funky hit single “Love Her Madly”.

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The song featured a typically unforgettable lead vocal from singer Jim Morrison. But it was one of the other band members who truly made this track happen.

Morrison’s Problems

In March 1969, Jim Morrison allegedly exposed himself to a concert audience in Miami, leading to his arrest. The Doors released two albums in the interim between the incident and the trial, which occurred in September 1970 and ended with a six-month prison sentence for the singer.

But the band had been through turmoil with Morrison before. They knew better than to think that this incident would stop them from recording again. Robbie Krieger, the band’s lead guitarist and one of its most prolific songwriters, started writing “Love Her Madly” even while Morrison’s freedom from incarceration was up in the air.

Krieger had recently purchased a 12-string acoustic guitar. He began shuffling about on it until he found a chord pattern that he liked. When it came to the lyrics, he based them on the ups and downs of his relationship with his girlfriend, the same woman who would become his wife.

Making “Madly”

While Morrison was free on bond, he was able to join The Doors in the studio to record “Love Her Madly”. Krieger had even included some cryptic lyrics (“Seven horses seem/To be on the mark”) guaranteed to appeal to the band’s mercurial lead singer.

When it came time to record “Love Her Madly”, doubts abounded about whether it was suitable. Longtime Doors’ producer Paul Rothchild heard it, bemoaned its style, and left the sessions. Krieger himself wasn’t convinced that it should be the lead single, preferring the moody “Riders On The Storm” instead.

But everything came together beautifully when it came to the recording. The Doors, without a regular bassist, enlisted Jerry Scheff to deliver the strutting bottom end. And keyboardist Ray Manzarek chipped in with a churning organ solo.

Morrison, meanwhile, relished the crooning style of the song, delivering one of his warmest performances. Audiences ate “Love Her Madly” up as the lead single off the L.A. Woman album. It hit No. 11 on the pop charts in 1971, The Doors’ highest-charting single in three years.

Behind the Lyrics of “Love Her Madly”

The narrator is calling out to someone about a memorable girl as if he knows the score. “Don’t you love her ways?” he asks. “Tell me what you say.” Each question implies a thundering “yes” as an answer.

Later, he implies that the listener should be prepared for an up-and-down time of it. “All your love is gone,” he says. “So sing a lonely song.” And he asks the devastating question of all: “Don’t you love her when she’s walkin’ out the door?/Like she did one thousand times before.”

Sadly, The Doors’ incredible run ended not too long after the success of this song, due to Jim Morrison’s death in July 1971. Nonetheless, “Love You Madly” shows off both the pop smarts of this band and their resilience in the face of the difficult circumstances that always seemed to surround them.

Photo by Electra Records/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images