When Jim Morrison Told His Bandmates He Was Tired of Doing “All the Work,” They Responded With a No. 1 Hit

The best bands are the sum of their parts, with different members carrying different kinds of weight throughout their time together. In the late 1960s, The Doors frontman Jim Morrison believed he was having to bear too much of the songwriting load. So, he kicked writing duties over to his bandmate, Doors guitarist Robby Krieger.

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Krieger, in turn, looked to artists like The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix for inspiration. What came next was a chart-topping hit that would become synonymous with the band’s musical legacy.

The Many Inspirations Behind the Doors’ “Light My Fire”

After The Doors realized they didn’t have enough tracks for their eponymous debut, Jim Morrison suggested someone else try their hand at writing. “Jim said, ‘Write something universal that won’t go out of style next year,’” Krieger recalled to Uncut in 2026. “I thought of the elements and picked fire, as I always liked The [Rolling] Stones’ ‘Play With Fire’. That was the start of it.”

That elementally inspired song, of course, would become “Light My Fire”, the closing track to their first album’s A-side. Another main source of inspiration was a song that Jimi Hendrix popularized, “Hey Joe”. Krieger, however, was thinking of The Leaves’ earlier version of the song when writing “Light My Fire”. His Doors bandmates pushed back on this influence, citing that folk-rock was “going out.” So, the band opted for a Latin beat, which gave the song its distinct feel.

Ray Manzarek, meanwhile, was drawing inspiration from even older sources. The keyboardist called upon the Baroque composer Bach’s Inventions and Sinfonias for the song’s swirling introduction. Additionally, in the extended versions of the songs, Krieger’s jazz influence, specifically John Coltrane’s version of “My Favorite Things,” is audible. That’s two centuries’ worth of musical inspiration all distilled into one track that came to define the late 1960s.

Bob Dylan Played a Small Role, Too

The Doors released two versions of “Light My Fire”: a seven-minute album version and a radio edit under three minutes. Much to Robby Krieger’s chagrin, most of what was cut were lengthy guitar solos. While speaking to Uncut, he implied that Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone” helped break the stereotype that songs have to be short to get on the radio. Technically, Dylan’s track had already been out for two years by the time The Doors released theirs. However, it stands to reason that this trend moved more slowly across the West Coast, where The Doors were, than across the East Coast, where Dylan was.

Whether purposefully or not, drummer John Densmore imbued “Light My Fire” with a bit of “Like A Rolling Stone” spirit by opening the track with a single snare hit. All things considered, it’s no wonder that The Doors’ track became so inextricably linked to the 1960s. Its entire composition was pulled from several notable artists and bands of the time, with just enough Bach to make things unique.

“It’s just a good song, man,” Krieger told Uncut. And he’s right.

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