They were fired from their gig due to a profanity filled version of the song The End but not before being discovered and signed by the record label “Elektra”. The first self titled album included most of their original music played on stage and became very well known for having a 12 minute version of the song “The End” which wasn’t great for radio but was well loved by the fans of the band.

Their first attempt at a single was the song “Break On Through (to the other side)”, it did not achieve great success on the radio though so a second try was made with the song “Light My Fire”. However, “Light My Fire” was over seven minutes long and not radio friendly so the producers cut it down to just a three minutes song. “Light My Fire” became The Doors first big hit and was the beginning of the band’s success.

On September 17th, 1967 The Doors made another appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show where they sang the song “Light My Fire” live, unfortunately the TV Station asked that they changed the words “Baby we can’t get much higher” to Baby we can’t get much better” due to “Higher” being used for drugs at the time. There are conflicting reports as to what happened, some say Jim Morrison was just nervous and forgot, others say he never planned on actually changing the lyric, but after agreeing to the change the song was sung without the change. Ed Sullivan, a very powerful man on TV at the time, was furious and canceled the next six planned appearances by The Doors on his show. Jim Morrison’s response was to question why it mattered because “Hey man. We just did the Sullivan Show!”

On December 9th, 1967, The Doors were playing in New Haven Connecticut in what became known as The New Haven Incident. Before the show began a Police Officer found Jim Morrison back stage kissing with a fan in a shower stall. The police officer did not recognize Jim Morrison and told them to leave, Morrison responded with “Eat it.” The police officer warned Morrison “Last chance” to which Morrison replied “Last chance to eat it.” The police officer pulled out a can of Mace and sprayed Morrison in the face, the show had to be delayed an hour while Morrison recovered. In the middle of the show Morrison stopped singing and proceeded to give a very obscenity-laced description of what happened to the audience. The police at the show proceeded to arrest Morrison on stage for public indecency and the fans at the show were furious and a riot broke out which spread into the streets of New Haven. Jim Morrison was the first American musician ever arrested during a concert though all charges were later dropped as there was no evidence of any crime.

The Doors continued to tour successfully across the USA and Europe, though Morrison continued causing problems including passing out on stage after a long drug binge in Amsterdam. After returning to the USA they released another single which became a huge hit called “Touch Me” and continued performing sell out shows across the USA.

On March 1, 1969, the band was playing in Miami in what became one of their most controversial performances. Morrison decided to make his concert into a more of an art project, he continually antagonized the audience switching from asking for their love to belittling them and insulting them. The arena they were playing in was not air conditioned and it grew incredibly hot, Morrison was also very drunk and at one point stripped off his shirt while telling the audience to get naked, which many in the audience did. Morrison went too far when he put his shirt in front of his groin and, using his hand, made it appear he was showing the audience his genitals. The Miami police ordered Morrison’s arrest and he was sentenced to 6 months in prison and a $500 fine for public nudity and indecency.

Their last album was LA Woman, it was their second best selling album and contained two top 20 hits. On March 13, 1971, Jim Morrison took a leave of absence from The Doors and moved to Paris with his long time companion Pamela Courson. He was hoping to start a career as a writer in Paris but he started drinking heavily and using many drugs. On July 3, 1971, Morrison was found dead in his bathtub by Courson, he died of an apparent heart failure at 27. The Doors continued to play for two more years never replacing Morrison but also never recovering from the loss. In 1973 The Doors disbanded with the remaining members going on to join other bands.