Waiting for the Sun

For other uses, see Waiting for the Sun (disambiguation).

Waiting for the Sun
Studio album by
the Doors
ReleasedJuly 3, 1968 (1968-07-03)
RecordedNovember 1967 – May 1968
StudioSunset Sound & TTG, Hollywood
GenrePsychedelia[1]
Length32:49
LabelElektra
ProducerPaul A. Rothchild
The Doors chronology
Strange Days
(1967) 		Waiting for the Sun
(1968) 		The Soft Parade
(1969)
Singles from Waiting for the Sun
  1. "The Unknown Soldier"
    Released: March 1968
  2. "Hello, I Love You"
    Released: June 1968

Waiting for the Sun is the third studio album by the American rock band the Doors, released by Elektra Records on July 3, 1968. The album's 11 tracks were recorded between late 1967 and May 1968 mostly at TTG Studios in Los Angeles. It became the band's only number one album, topping the Billboard 200 for four weeks, while also including their second US number one single, "Hello, I Love You". The first single released off the record was "The Unknown Soldier", which peaked at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also became the band's first hit album in the UK, where it reached number 16.

Having released two records that drew from a large pool of previously composed songs, the Doors started to improvise for their third album in late 1967. Due to the shortage of original material, the group suffered what drummer John Densmore described as the "third album syndrome", meaning the difficulty of a band to have a stock of good compositions, capable of filling a third disc in a row.[2] The recording sessions also proved difficult for the group due to lead singer Jim Morrison's worsening alcoholism.

The album provoked mixed reactions upon release, with many deriding its diversity and songwriting quality as detriments and inconsistent. However, it has attracted more sympathetic appraisal for its mellower sound and experimentation with other genres.[3][4][5] To coincide with the 50th anniversary of the album's release in 2018, a 1-LP/2-CD deluxe version of the album was released by Rhino Records. This was overseen by long-time Doors sound engineer Bruce Botnick.

  1. ^ Buskin, Richard. "Classic Tracks: The Doors 'Strange Days'". Sound on Sound. Retrieved May 9, 2021. Engineer and producer Bruce Botnick recorded some of the greatest artifacts of West Coast psychedelia, among them the first five albums by the Doors.
  2. ^ Densmore 1991, p. 159.
  3. ^ Weidman 2011, p. 156.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Unterberger was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Cinquemani was invoked but never defined (see the help page).