Waiting for the Sun | ||||
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Studio album by the Doors | ||||
Released | July 3, 1968 | |||
Recorded | February–May 1968 | |||
Studio | TTG Studios, Hollywood, California | |||
Genre | Psychedelic rock | |||
Length | 33:10 | |||
Label | Elektra | |||
Producer | Paul A. Rothchild | |||
the Doors chronology | ||||
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Singles from Waiting for the Sun | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
MusicHound | 3.5/5 |
Rolling Stone | (mixed) |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
Slant Magazine | |
Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music |
Waiting for the Sun is the third studio album by the American rock band the Doors, recorded from February to May 1968 and released in July 1968. It became the band's first and only No. 1 album, spawning their second US number one single, "Hello, I Love You". It also became the band's first hit album in the UK, where it peaked at No. 16 on the chart.
The recording of Waiting for the Sun was, by all accounts, troubled. For one, the band had plundered Morrison's original songbook, a collection of lyrics and ideas, for their first two albums. Consequently, after months of touring, interviews, and television appearances, they had little new material. To compensate, the band struggled mightily to record a longer piece called "The Celebration of the Lizard," a collection of song fragments stitched together by Morrison's often surreal poetry. Frustrated by their lack of progress, the band and producer Paul A. Rothchild abandoned the recording. The group would revisit it later in its full-length form on their 1970 album Absolutely Live. Rothchild's growing perfectionism was also becoming an issue for the band; each song on the album required at least twenty takes and "The Unknown Soldier", recorded in two parts, took 130 takes.
Waiting for the Sun includes the band's second chart topper, "Hello, I Love You." One of the last remaining songs from Morrison's 1965 batch of tunes, it had been demoed by the group for Aura Records in 1965 before Krieger had been a member, as had "Summer's Almost Gone." In the liner notes to the Doors Box Set, Robby Krieger denied the allegations that the song's musical structure was stolen from Ray Davies, where a riff similar to it is featured in The Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night". Instead, he said the song's vibe was taken from Cream's song "Sunshine of Your Love". According to the Doors biography No One Here Gets Out Alive, courts in the UK determined in favor of Davies and any royalties for the song are paid to him.