The Doors – ‘Love Me Two Times’
  • Writers: The Doors
  • Producer: Paul A. Rothchild
  • Recorded: Summer 1967 at Sunset Recorders, Hollywood, California.
  • Released: September 1967 (album), November 1967 (single)
  • Players:
    Jim Morrison — vocals
    Ray Manzarek — keyboards
    Robbie Krieger — guitar
    John Densmore — drums
  • Album: Strange Days (Elektra, 1967)
  • Also on:
    13 (Elektra, 1970)
    The Best of the Doors (Elektra, 1973)
    The Doors Greatest Hits (Elektra, 1980)
    Alive, She Cried (Elektra, 1983)
    In Concert (Elektra, 1991)
    and other compilations.
  • The second single from the Doors’ second album, “Love Me Two Times” peaked at Number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100.
  • The single was backed by the Strange Days track “Moonlight Drive,” which also became a Doors fan favorite.
  • Guitarist Robbie Krieger took the lead in writing the blues-styled “Love Me Two Times” and described the song to us: ” ‘Love Me Two Times,’ I believe, was the second song I wrote, ‘Light My Fire’ being the first. It was sort of, the ideas was you go on the road or something and you’re not going to see your girlfriend, for wife or whatever, so ‘love me two times.’ It could’ve been about a Vietnam Veteran going off to war, and he’s not going to see his girlfriend for awhile.”
  • Such romantic and sexual themes were common in Krieger’s songs for the band. Besides “Light My Fire,” he also wrote “Love Her Madly” on the L.A. Woman album.
  • After the success of the Doors’ debut album, Elektra had advance orders of more than 500,000 copies for Strange Days.
  • Between the two albums, Sunset Recorders had expanded its recording capacity from four to eight tracks, which gave the Doors greater opportunity to expand its sound.
  • The Strange Days album peaked at Number Three on the Billboard charts but was only certified gold, a disappointment after The Doors sold more than a million copies.

FAST FORWARD:

  • Frontman Jim Morrison died of mysterious causes on July 3, 1971 in Paris.
    The other three members recorded two more albums before breaking up the in 1973.
  • The group’s career was the subject of Oliver Stone’s 1991 film The Doors.
  • The Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
  • Manzarek and Densmore have both penned memoirs about their days in the group.