The album features the extended version of the band's breakthrough single "Light My Fire" and the lengthy closer "The End" with its Oedipal spoken word section.

[4] Various publications, including BBC and Rolling Stone, have listed The Doors as one of the greatest debut albums of all time.

[7] It has been viewed as an essential part of the psychedelic rock evolution, while also being acknowledged as a source of inspiration to numerous other works.

In 2015, the Library of Congress selected The Doors for inclusion in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

[14] Following their release from the label, the Doors played residencies in mid-1966 at two historic Sunset Strip club venues, the London Fog and Whisky a Go Go.

[15] They were spotted at the Whisky a Go Go by Elektra Records president Jac Holzman, who was present at the suggestion of Love singer Arthur Lee.

[11] The Doors was recorded by producer Paul A. Rothchild and audio engineer Bruce Botnick at Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, California, over about a week[19][20] in late August 1966.

[21] "Indian Summer"[nb 1] and "Moonlight Drive" were the first rehearsal outtakes of the album,[6] while the first actual songs recorded that appeared being "I Looked at You" and "Take It as It Comes".

[17][25][26] The album's instrumentation includes keyboards, electric guitar, occasional bass,[27] drums,[28] and marxophone (on "Alabama Song").

[40]Interviewed by Lizze James, he pointed out the meaning of the verse "My only friend, the end": Sometimes the pain is too much to examine, or even tolerate ... That doesn't make it evil, though – or necessarily dangerous.

[43] Robby Krieger has stated that he took the idea for the guitar riff from Paul Butterfield's version of the song "Shake Your Moneymaker" (originally by blues guitarist Elmore James).

[48] It came from one of his observations on Yogi's meditation classes, which Morrison wasn't initially studying contrary to the other group members, but was later convinced by them to attend.

[50] The lyrics to "Twentieth Century Fox" refer to either Manzarek's wife Dorothy Fujikawa[51] or Morrison's girlfriend Pamela Courson.

[42] The Chicago blues "Back Door Man" was written by Willie Dixon and originally recorded by Howlin' Wolf.

[38] For the album's cover, Joel Brodsky was hired to provide a photo of the group, which later received a Grammy nomination.

[56] Holzman also suggested an association with Billboard magazine for the album's advertisement by promoting the record with "hoarding", a novel concept which was made popular later on.

[58] The Doors made a steady climb up the Billboard 200, ultimately becoming a huge success in the US once the edited single version of "Light My Fire" scaled the charts to become No.

[61] The 40th anniversary mix of the debut album presents a stereo version of "Light My Fire" in speed-corrected form for the first time.

[68] The next year, a 40th anniversary edition was released featuring the 2006 stereo remix and three bonus tracks, which was mastered by Botnick at Uniteye.

[71] Analogue Productions reissued the album on hybrid SACD and double 45 RPM vinyl, both editions were mastered by Doug Sax and Sangwook Nam at The Mastering Lab; the CD layer of the Super Audio CD contains the original stereo mix while the SACD layer contains Botnick's 2006 5.1 surround mix.

[72][73] In 2017, a deluxe edition was released in commemoration of the album's 50th anniversary, and includes the original stereo and mono mixes, as well as a compilation of songs recorded live at The Matrix in San Francisco on March 7, 1967.

magazine, founder and critic Paul Williams hailed The Doors as "an album of magnitude" and described the band as creators of "modern music", with which "contemporary 'jazz' and 'classical' composers must try to measure up".

[nb 3] Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic in his column for Esquire, recommending the album but with reservations; he approved of Manzarek's organ playing and Morrison's "flexible though sometimes faint" singing while highlighting the presence of a "great original hard rock" in "Break on Through" and clever songs such as "Twentieth Century Fox", but was critical of more "esoteric" material such as the "long, obscure dirge" "The End".

[90] He also found Morrison's lyrics often self-indulgent, particularly lines like "our love becomes a funeral pyre", which he said spoiled "Light My Fire", and "the nebulousness that passes for depth among so many lovers of rock poetry" on "The End".

[102] More recently in 2020, online media magazine Loudwire placed The Doors one of the "25 Legendary Rock Albums With No Weak Songs".

[7] All tracks are written by the Doors (Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore), except where noted.