How many number ones did The Doors have?
The Beatles. The Stones. Led Zeppelin. The Doors. When thinking about the titans of 1960s rock music, Jim Morrison and his band have to be among them. Since their launch in 1965, the California troupe offered something more poetic and hypnotic to the landscape as their shows were more like events of mass hysteria, and their fans were more like cult members tethered to Morrison as their leader. But did that translate to actual sales?
By now, the world knows that one thing doesn’t always equal another. An artist or band’s cultural legacy doesn’t always match up to their sales success at the time or even the amount of love and praise they received when they were active. For some, it is only in retrospect that they received their flowers, like Janis Joplin, who really only secured her legend status after Pearl was released posthumously. Or Jimi Hendrix, who, after dying so tragically young, has seen his name swell to God-like status as generation after generation revisits his relatively small discography.
In some cases, though, it does match up. During their career, which actually only lasted less than ten years, The Beatles secured 20 number-one singles on the Billboard chart, making them the act with the number-one hits in music history. The Rolling Stones’ cultural success and sales figures match up to more than 250 million record sales worldwide. Led Zeppelin’s looming reputation translates, too, as their 1971 project Led Zeppelin IV is one of the best-selling albums of all time.
But while The Doors are one of the most well-known and beloved bands of their era and are still one of the groups brought up time and time again in discussions about the ultimate rock acts in history, they actually didn’t manage to dominate the charts all that often.
During their eight-year career, from their formation in 1965 to their eventual end in 1973 following the death of Jim Morrison in 1971, the band only managed two number-one singles. In 1967, ‘Light My Fire’ hit the top of the charts at the number one spot in the US. In the UK, it landed at only 49, but later reentered the charts at number seven in 1991, following the release of Oliver Stones’ biopic. Then, in 1968, they got their second US number one with ‘Hello, I Love You’, which landed at number 15 in the UK.
Beyond those two tracks, the band didn’t fare that well in the charts. ‘Touch Me’ came close with a number three slot in the US, but other than that, they were rarely found in the top ten.
How many records have The Doors sold?
However, while the charts at the time didn’t appreciate the band, history has been kind to them. Still beloved by generations of new fans, and still considered to be an essential part of any rock and roll fan’s music collection, their albums continue to sell today.
All in all, The Doors sold over 100 million records worldwide, putting them among some of the best-selling artists of all time. Their sales stats match Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Dylan and beat out the likes of The Beach Boys and Tom Petty.
