Australian singles chart:
Riders on the Storm entered the Kent charts on 4 October 1971 and peaked at #12. The song was #79 on the Top 100 of 1971.
Album:
The song is on LA Woman which entered the Kent album charts on 19 July 1971 and peaked at #9.
Songwriters:
John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek, Jim Morrison
Producers:
Bruce Botnick, The Doors
Record label of Australian release:
Elektra
Wikipedia:
According to guitarist Robby Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek, Riders on the Storm was inspired by the country song (Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend, written by Stan Jones and popularised by Vaughn Monroe. Portions of the song’s lyrics were allegedly inspired by spree killer Billy Cook, whom Morrison referenced in a 1970 interview with The Village Voice, citing Cook as an inspiration for his short film HWY: An American Pastoral.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riders_on_the_Storm
Songfacts:
This was the last song Jim Morrison recorded. He went to France and died a few weeks later. The single was released in June 1971, shortly before Morrison’s death.
The song can be seen as an autobiographical account of Morrison’s life: he considered himself a “Rider on the storm.” The “killer on the road” is a reference to a screenplay he wrote called The Hitchhiker (An American Pastoral), where Morrison was going to play the part of a hitchhiker who goes on a murder spree. The lyrics, “Girl you gotta love your man” can be seen as a desperate plea to his long time girlfriend Pamela.
Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/the-doors/riders-on-the-storm
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 70s
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