THE DOORS - AUGUST 1968: THE PEAK OF SUCCESS

 

The Doors' third LP, "Waiting for the Sun", was released in early July 1968. It reached No. 1 in the U.S. charts on 10 August that year.

This would be the band's only album to top the American charts, marking the most successful period in the career of the Californian quartet.

A week earlier, a single from the album, "Hello I Love You", had also reached the top of the charts in the US and remained there for another seven days.

Shortly afterwards, The Doors performed three highly attended and tumultuous live shows on the US East Coast. Then, in early September 1968, they flew to England for a two-week tour of Northern Europe.

This period of the group's history is also notable for the fact that, alongside "Waiting for the Sun", two other LPs were simultaneously in the US Top 40.

In fact, during the first week of August 1968, The Doors' debut album (released in January 1967) and their second LP ("Strange Days", released in September 1967) were still in the charts.

"Strange Days" peaked at number two in November 1967 and was still holding at number 40.

"The Doors" was occupying the twenty-fourth spot a full year and seven months after its release.

August 1968 saw some great artists and groups celebrate success, including Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Simon and Garfunkel, and Steppenwolf. These circumstances made The Doors' chart performance all the more remarkable.

For example, in the same week that “Waiting for the Sun” topped the charts, Cream even peaked at #3 and #9 with two very good albums, 'Wheels of Fire' and 'Disraeli Gears'.

The climax of The Doors' fame with the American public lasted until January 1969, when they performed in front of more than 20,000 spectators at Madison Square Garden in New York (a very high number for that time).

Although the summer of 1968 represented the height of The Doors' commercial success, this period would not be as memorable for fans as others in the band's history.

Both the LP "Waiting for the Sun" and the single "Hello, I Love You" are still considered by most admirers of the group to be lesser-known and of inferior quality compared to earlier chapters in The Doors' discography.

Despite this, the cultural and artistic climate of that summer suited The Doors' music perfectly.

Following the "Summer of Love" in 1967, the summer of '68 saw American youth become more aware of the generational conflict within American society.

Opposition to the Vietnam War and the conservative values of society at the time constituted an act of rebellion that The Doors' music was able to capture with transgressive effectiveness.

In the United States, this historical context evolved quickly through other social and cultural attitudes, which found new musical interpreters (such as the Rolling Stones), just as there had been a different soundtrack before '68 (like, for example, Bob Dylan).

The riots and unrest sparked by The Doors' live performances in 1968 also signaled that the group's sound and Jim Morrison's irreverent stage presence were perfectly suited to symbolizing the sense of rebellion permeating American youth that year.

P.S.: My book "The Doors Through Strange Days", the most comprehensive journey ever made through The Doors' second LP, is available on Amazon.com, .uk, .mx, .it.

Here’s a link:

Amazon – “The Doors Through Strange Days”