The Doors - The Look Behind Collection (1996)

The Doors mark the moment when the American rock underground of the 1960s came crashing into the mainstream. The group's massive influence on the course of rock music may been overshadowed by decades of lionization of their late lead singer Jim Morrison, whose early death wound up being a pivotal part of their legacy. He seemed to loom larger in his afterlife than he did when he roamed the earth, his posthumous popularity cresting in the '80s as the Doors returned to radio airwaves in the wake of their magnum opus "The End" soundtracking pivotal moments in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. "The End" never appeared as a single but its Oedipal melodrama zeroed in on the Doors' appeal back in 1967: the group seemed otherworldly and dangerous, drawing from inspirations not normally heard in rock music. Morrison's heated poetry and hedonism were genuinely new at the time the Doors released their self-titled debut in 1967, as were the droning guitars of Robby Krieger and cascading organ lines of Ray Manzarek, who also played keyboard bass in concert (on record, session musicians often laid down a bass part). Underneath their trippy surface, the Doors were veterans of the Los Angeles garage scene, and their affinity for blues and hard rock gave the band a flinty earthiness that served them well throughout their career; it's certainly evident on their biggest hit singles, including "Light My Fire," "Love Me Two Times," "Hello, I Love You," "Touch Me," and "Love Her Madly." The blend of muscle and mysticism helped shape the parameters of punk and art-rock it's difficult to imagine Iggy Pop without the Doors and ultimately wound up being their biggest lasting influence, eclipsing the Morrison mythos and years of play on classic rock radio.