Film students Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek opened The Doors in 1965. With Morrison on vocals and Manzarek on keyboards, they were joined by drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger to create one of the most controversial bands of the time. Taking their name from Aldous Huxley's psychedelic treatise The Doors of Perception, the band came from California's hippy scene but with a drive and intensity not found in their musical contemporaries.

In 1967 their first album, The Doors, captured the rawness and energy of their stage shows. While former film students Morrison and Manzarek had some innovative ideas for the promotional video for the first single "Break on Through", America seemingly wasn't ready for them and the single failed to break the Top 100. The second single, "Light My Fire", was much more warmly received and got to No.1 in the US.

After notorious appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show and in Florida, the band had attracted the attention of police and local authorities. Concern about 'corruption of the youth' made promoters nervous, and venues that would stage the band became harder to find. The band still managed some live performances and during the European tour to promote the third album, Waiting For The Sun, the London shows were filmed and later released as The Doors Are Open. In 1970 they played the Isle of Wight Festival along with Jimi Hendrix and The Who.

The LA Woman album released in 1971 included "Riders on the Storm" which, although not their most commercially successful track, is their most remixed and covered. Shortly after the release of the album, Jim Morrison was found dead in a bathtub in his Paris flat. It is believed he died from an accidental heroin overdose, though the cause of death was never definitively established.

Krieger and Manzarek took over lead vocals on Other Voices/Full Circle, but it failed to match the sales of the Morrison-fronted output, and in 1972 The Doors closed.

New audiences were introduced to the music of the band in the cinema when Francis Ford Coppola chose to use "The End" in his 1979 Vietnam epic Apocalypse Now to capture the drama and the chaos of the times. In 1991 Oliver Stone directed the film The Doors, a highly successful biopic of Jim Morrison.