Once Upon a Time in the Top Spot: The Doors, Waiting for the Sun

48 years ago today, The Doors secured what would prove to be the first and only #1 studio album of their career.

Produced as ever (at least up to that point) by Paul A. Rothchild, Waiting for the Sun was the band’s third album, and it was one which found them delivering their second #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100: “Hello, “I Love You.” “The Unknown Soldier” was also released as a single, and although it wasn’t quite as much of a smash, the song nonetheless ended up providing the band with another top-40 hit.

But something Waiting for the Sun ultimately did not deliver – or at least not in its entirety, anyway – was the legendary performance piece known as “Celebration of the Lizard.” The track was originally to have included several of Jim Morrison’s poems, among them “Lions in the Street,” “Wake Up!,” “A Little Game,” “The Hill Dwellers,” “Not to Touch the Earth,” “Names of the Kingdom,” and “The Palace of Exile.” Although the band attempted the full piece more than a few times, they were never sufficiently happy with any of the performances, and in the end only “Not to Touch the Earth” made the final cut.

You can, however, find the full “Celebration” on the concert album Absolutely Live, and a studio version belatedly emerged on the band’s 2003 compilation album Legacy: The Absolute Best. And as for Waiting for the Sun, don’t forget that it also contains “Love Street,” a song which found additional fame on the soundtrack of Oliver Stone’s The Doors, and “Five to One,” which the late Scott Weiland famously described as the song which inspired him to begin a career in rock music.

All this, and it was a #1 album, too? Talk about an LP that was well worth the wait.