The Doors’ “Light My Fire” stayed at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks in 1967. It reached the summit in late July, becoming the band’s first U.S. number-one single and its defining commercial breakthrough.
The original album recording runs for more than seven minutes, but Elektra issued a substantially edited single version for radio. The edit removed most of the long instrumental passages while preserving the song’s distinctive organ-and-guitar centerpiece, helping it fit the programming expectations of 1960s AM radio.
The hit transformed the Doors from a Los Angeles club act into international stars during the Summer of Love. The song later re-entered the Hot 100 in 1968 after José Feliciano’s cover became successful, but that later chart appearance should not be confused with the Doors’ original three-week run at number one. The Doors also performed it on The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1967, famously retaining the original lyric after being asked to change it.