Riders on the Storm

"Riders on the Storm"
Single by The Doors
from the album L.A. Woman
B-side	"The Changeling"
Released	June 1971
Recorded	December 1970 – January 1971
Genre	Psychedelic rock, acid rock, blues rock, jazz fusion, musique concrète
Length	7:10 (album) 4:35 (single)
Label	Elektra
Writer(s)	Jim Morrison Robby Krieger Ray Manzarek John Densmore
Producer	Bruce Botnick The Doors Joey Levins
The Doors singles chronology
"Love Her Madly" (1971) "Riders on the Storm" (1971) "Get Up and Dance" (1972)
Alternative cover

"Riders on the Storm" is a song by The Doors from their 1971 album, L.A. Woman. It reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, number 22 on the UK singles charts and number 7 in the Netherlands.

Overview

According to band member Robby Krieger, it was inspired by the song "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend." The song is played in the E Dorian mode, and incorporates real sound effects of thunder and rain, along with Ray Manzarek's Fender Rhodes electric piano playing, which emulates the sound of rain.

The song was recorded at the Doors Workshop in December 1970 with the assistance of Bruce Botnick, their longtime engineer, who was co-producing the recording sessions. Jim Morrison recorded his main vocals and then whispered the lyrics over them to create the echo effect. This was the last song recorded by the members of The Doors, according to Manzarek, as well as Morrison's last recorded song to be released. The single was released in 1971, shortly before Morrison's death, entering the Hot 100 on 3 July 1971, the day that Morrison died.

The Doors' former producer, Paul Rothchild left prior to the sessions, as he did not like the album. It is commonly incorrectly believed to be the song that made Rothchild leave the album, reportedly calling it "cock-tail music", but in actuality it was "Love Her Madly" (Rothchild loved "Riders On The Storm"). Their engineer Bruce Botnick was selected to produce the album instead.

The band's drummer John Densmore wrote a 1990 book called Riders on the Storm, detailing the story of his life and his time with the group.

Ray Manzarek and guitarist Roy Rogers covered this song as an instrumental duet on their 2008 album "Ballads Before the Rain".

In November 2009, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame under the category Rock (track).

The song is rumoured to have been performed live only once, on The L.A. Woman tour at The Warehouse in New Orleans, Louisiana, on December 12, 1970. This was The Doors' last public performance with Jim Morrison. It was only the second date of the tour, but was also the last, as the tour was cancelled after this concert.

Chart positions

Chart (1971)	Peak position
Netherlands Singles Chart	7
UK Singles Chart	22

Rock Band Music Gaming Platform

The song was made available to download on October 26, 2010 for use in the Rock Band 3 music gaming platform in both Basic rhythm, and PRO mode which takes advantage of the use of a real guitar / bass guitar, along with standard MIDI-compatible electronic drum kits / keyboards in addition to vocals.

Cover versions

• Annabel Lamb covered the song in 1983. It peaked at 27 in the UK NME chart of 24 September.
• Cameo covered the song in 1990 as an homage to Jim Morrison's influence on the band.
• Brutal Bill released a song in 1998 called 'Woman Of Angels' on Muggsy Records that heavily sampled the instrumentation of 'Riders on the Storm'.
• The Jacka sampled most of the song in 2008 for the single "Storm" featuring Cormega for his album "Tear Gas".
• Creed also covered this song in 2000 for the album Stoned Immaculate.
• Forthcoming Fire covered the song on their album "Je Suis" as a hidden track.
• Infected Mushroom remixed the song, and it appears on the 2009 album, Legend of the Black Shawarma.
• Nightmares on Wax remixed the song for the limited edition of "The best of the doors", which appeared in 2000. Three other remixes are on the bonus cd by Baez & Cornell, Ibizarre and SpaceBats.
• Snoop Dogg covered the song for the 2004 game, Need for Speed: Underground 2, in a remixed version produced by Fredwreck. The cover was dubbed over the original track.
• New Age/Electronica music group Dancing Fantasy released a cover off their 1991 album "California Grooves."
• Rapture Riders, a 2005 officially-released mashup version of the song produced by Go Home Productions, featured Jim Morrison's vocal combined with music and vocals from Blondie's 1981 single "Rapture".
• Ray Manzarek & Bal collaborated on a electronic jazz version for their Atonal Head CD, 2006.
• Dezperadoz covered the song in 2008 for the album An Eye for an Eye .
• Wolfmother covered the song live at Outside Lands 2010, blending it with their own "The White Unicorn."
• Carlos Santana covered the song on his 2010 album Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time. This version features Chester Bennington (of Linkin Park) on lead vocals and Ray Manzarek (of The Doors) on keyboards, as he did on the original.
• Incubus is known to medley into the song while playing "Are You In?" during their live shows.
• Wednesday 13 covered the song with altered lyrics and an original chorus, retitling it 'Welcome to the Strange', on the 2000 Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13 album Songs from the Recently Deceased.