Light My Fire
by The Doors
- 129
- BPM
- Bb minor
- Key
- 3A
- Camelot
- 42
- Danceability
- 37
- Acousticness
On September 17, 1967, the Doors played "Light My Fire" live on The Ed Sullivan Show. Producer Bob Precht, Ed Sullivan's son-in-law, asked them to change the line "girl, we couldn't get much higher", because sponsors were uneasy about a possible reference to drugs. The band agreed and rehearsed with "girl, we couldn't get much better". During the live performance, Jim Morrison sang the original line anyway. Sullivan did not shake his hand as he left the stage.
The song had been out for months by then. The edited single came out on April 24, 1967, and spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It returned to the chart in 1968 after José Feliciano's cover reached number three, and peaked at 87 on its second run.
Robby Krieger wrote most of it in early 1966, inspired by the melody of "Hey Joe" and the lyrics of the Rolling Stones' "Play with Fire". John Densmore pushed for a Latin rhythm, Morrison wrote the second verse and part of the chorus, and Ray Manzarek added the Bach-influenced organ intro. Recording took three sessions in September 1966 at Sunset Sound Recorders.
Light My Fire runs at 129 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.86 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 465 ms. It is in Bb minor, Camelot 3A, which shares its notes with Db major and mixes cleanly with Eb minor and F minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.