People Are Strange
by The Doors
- 119
- BPM
- B major
- Key
- 1B
- Camelot
- 70
- Danceability
- 69
- Acousticness
In early 1967 John Densmore and Robby Krieger were roommates, and one day Jim Morrison came by looking deeply depressed. Krieger suggested a walk through Laurel Canyon in the Hollywood Hills. Morrison came back euphoric, carrying the early lyrics of "People Are Strange". As Densmore recalled his words, it had come to him in a flash while he sat on the ridge looking out over the city. "I scribbled it down as fast as I could," he said. "It felt great to be writing again." He sang the chorus from the crumpled paper, and Krieger was convinced the vocal melody made it a hit.
Morrison and Krieger wrote it, though the sleeve notes credit the whole band. It went onto Strange Days, the Doors' second studio album, in September 1967. The single carried "Unhappy Girl" on the B-side and reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song is about alienation and being an outsider. Densmore believes it showed Morrison's vulnerability. In 2023 it inspired paintings by the artist George Condo.
People Are Strange runs at 119 BPM, the tempo of pop, funk and disco-leaning dance. In classical terms it sits in moderato territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.02 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 504 ms. It is in B major, Camelot 1B, which shares its notes with Ab minor and mixes cleanly with E major and F# major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.