The Doors – Riders On The Storm

The Producer Called It Cocktail Music And Quit

Released in June 1971 as the second single from their sixth studio album L.A. Woman, The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” peaked at number fourteen on the Billboard Hot 100, reached number twenty-two in the UK Singles Chart, and climbed to number seven in the Netherlands. The track entered the American chart the week ending July third, 1971, the exact day Jim Morrison died in Paris. It became the final song Morrison recorded with the band and pushed L.A. Woman to gold certification immediately, eventually selling over three million copies. What most fans don’t know is that when longtime producer Paul Rothchild heard the early demo at Sunset Sound Studios, he put his head in his hands and said this is cocktail jazz, I can’t do this anymore. Rothchild quit the project immediately after producing Janis Joplin’s Pearl, leaving engineer Bruce Botnick to co-produce with the band themselves. That forced independence transformed what could have been The Doors’ final album into their most stripped-down, authentic statement.

The single debuted on the Hot 100 on July third at number ninety-two and climbed steadily through summer, peaking at number fourteen by mid-August. It spent fourteen weeks on the chart total, though Morrison never saw its success, having died the morning it entered. In the UK, it reached twenty-two and spent several weeks on the chart during late summer. The Netherlands gave it the warmest reception at number seven, while it charted throughout Europe including Ireland, Germany, and Belgium. The song crossed over to Adult Contemporary radio where its jazzy atmosphere found receptive programmers. Released after Morrison’s death rather than as planned promotion for the living artist, the single carried immediate poignancy that radio couldn’t ignore. The parent album L.A. Woman had been released in April to strong reviews and modest sales, but Morrison’s death and this single’s subsequent release drove it to number nine on the Billboard 200 and gold status. By 1983, it had earned platinum certification and eventually sold over three million copies in America alone.

Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek acknowledged the song drew inspiration from Stan Jones’ country-western standard “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” with Morrison transforming supernatural cowboys into a meditation on mortality and danger. Morrison wrote the lyrics and brought them to rehearsal, incorporating references to hitchhiking serial killer Billy Cook, who’d murdered six people in 1950 and 1951 before being captured and executed. Cook became the subject of the 1953 Ida Lupino film The Hitch-Hiker, one of noir’s bleakest entries. Morrison’s lyrics about a killer on the road whose brain is squirming like a toad captured the menace lurking beneath America’s highway romanticism. The autobiographical elements referenced Morrison’s childhood and his long tumultuous relationship with Pamela Courson, though neither Densmore nor Botnick could later explain what specifically inspired Morrison. The song emerged during rehearsals as a slower, moodier counterpoint to the album’s blues-rock energy, with Morrison insisting on the theatrical rain and thunder effects that would define the final recording.

The band recorded the track at their own Doors Workshop rehearsal space in December 1970 with Bruce Botnick engineering and co-producing alongside the band. The relaxed atmosphere of their own space, free from Rothchild’s perfectionism, let them work faster and more instinctively. The Sunset Sound demo that drove Rothchild away featured Manzarek playing piano bass, giving it a rougher, almost electronic feel that the producer couldn’t embrace. For the final version, they brought in Jerry Scheff, Elvis Presley’s bassist, whose son Jason would later replace Peter Cetera in Chicago. Krieger played guitar while Densmore created the jazz-influenced drum pattern that gave the track its hypnotic momentum. Manzarek’s electric piano work provided the atmospheric foundation. Morrison recorded his lead vocals, then in January 1971 at Poppi Studios during mixing, he whispered the lyrics again over the finished track to create the ghostly echo effect that became the song’s signature. Botnick obtained thunder and rain recordings that Elektra chief Jac Holzman had captured in New York City, though accounts differ on whether they cued the thunder claps deliberately or if they fell perfectly by coincidence.

L.A. Woman represented The Doors’ return to their blues-rock roots after the orchestral experiments of The Soft Parade and the acoustic detours of Morrison Hotel. Recording in their own space with minimal overdubs created their rawest, most immediate-sounding album since their 1967 debut. Beyond this track, the album spawned the title track and “Love Her Madly,” which reached number eleven. Critics praised the album’s stripped-down aesthetic and Morrison’s focused vocal performances, noting he sounded reinvigorated compared to recent erratic appearances. John Densmore later revealed they finished the album in just weeks once Rothchild departed, calling it a joy to work with Botnick and have more control. When Morrison left for Paris in March to join Courson, none of them knew it would be the last time they’d see him alive. His July third death transformed everything about the album’s reception, with fans and critics retrospectively hearing premonitions of mortality throughout, particularly on this track.

The song has been covered extensively across genres and decades. Snoop Dogg remixed it with producer Fredwreck for the 2004 video game Need for Speed Underground 2, dubbing his vocals over the original track and introducing it to a new generation. Go Home Productions created Rapture Riders in 2005, a mashup combining Morrison’s vocals with Blondie’s “Rapture” that became an underground hit. Carlos Santana recorded it for his 2010 album Guitar Heaven featuring Chester Bennington on lead vocals and Ray Manzarek returning to play keyboards. DJ Shadow sampled it for Snoop Dogg’s “Knock Knock” on his 1996 debut. The track appeared in films including Forrest Gump during the Vietnam sequences, The Doors biopic directed by Oliver Stone, and Need for Speed. Television shows from The Simpsons to Letterkenny have featured it. In 2012, New York’s Q104.3 ranked it the four hundred ninety-eighth best classic rock song of all time, while Rolling Stone placed it at number four hundred forty on their five hundred greatest songs list.

“Riders on the Storm” endures as The Doors’ haunting farewell and proof that producer walkouts can liberate rather than destroy. Densmore’s reflection that Rothchild heard it in early rehearsal before it evolved into what it became demonstrates how songs transform through the recording process, and how sometimes producers lose faith too early. The band’s response to being called cocktail musicians was to lean into the atmospheric jazz elements while maintaining their rock intensity, creating something genuinely unique. Morrison’s whispered vocal overdub, done during mixing sessions without Rothchild’s interference, became the element that elevated good into transcendent. The coincidence of the single entering the chart the day Morrison died adds mythology that the song doesn’t need but can’t escape. Five decades later, those rain sounds and Morrison’s whispered warnings still evoke late-night drives and existential dread, testament to a band that found their truest voice only after their producer abandoned them.