Waiting For The Sun

The Doors' Waiting For The Sun, released on Elektra EKS-74024 in the US in July 1968, is the band's third official Elektra LP. This first pressing is identified by its brown/tan Elektra vinyl label, with the word 'Stereo' printed on the left-hand side in a distinctive elongated font. It comes housed in a unipak gatefold sleeve with a brown Elektra inner sleeve. Some copies from this first run carried a 'Includes Hello, I Love You' sticker affixed to the front cover, which adds a modest premium for sticker-intact examples on the current market.

The cover photograph is immediately striking. The four members of The Doors, Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore, are photographed outdoors against a warm, golden-toned sky with tall grasses or brush visible behind them. The light has a late-afternoon quality, amber and slightly hazy, giving the image a sun-drenched atmosphere that suits the album title perfectly. The band is dressed in the period-appropriate mix of casual and slightly bohemian attire, each member facing the camera with a composed, almost detached expression. Morrison, positioned prominently, looks lean and assured. The band name 'the doors' appears in lowercase at the upper left in the familiar logo typeface, while 'Waiting For The Sun' is printed in clean white text along the lower portion of the image. The overall color palette runs warm, burnt oranges and golden browns dominating the frame. The rear artwork carries the standard Elektra layout for the period, with track listing and the copyright notice for Nipper Music Co., Inc., cleared through ASCAP. Inside the gatefold, collectors will find the full printed lyrics to 'Celebration of the Lizard,' Jim Morrison's extended theatre composition, copyrighted 1968 by Nipper Music Co., Inc. This is not a track on the album, which makes its inclusion here a notable point of interest. The brown Elektra inner sleeve is utilitarian but correct for the pressing. The vinyl itself, on a well-preserved first pressing, should be the characteristic brown/tan label stock that distinguishes it cleanly from later Elektra reissues.

Waiting For The Sun arrived at an interesting and somewhat contentious moment in The Doors' trajectory. Coming off the commercial and critical momentum of Strange Days, the band shifted toward a more accessible, song-oriented approach here, and the reaction from the harder-edged segment of the fanbase was mixed. The pop press of the day leaned into it, and the album connected with a broader audience, but longtime followers sensed a recalibration in the band's ambitions. 'Hello, I Love You' became a major hit, landing at number one in the US, which accounts for that includes 'Hello, I Love You' sticker on some first pressing copies; it was clearly a selling point Elektra wanted to flag at the point of sale. The most culturally significant track on the record, however, is 'The Unknown Soldier,' an anti-war statement released as a single earlier that year. The Doors produced a short film to accompany it, shown at concerts, which was eventually banned from broader broadcast. That context adds weight to what might otherwise be read as simply a well-constructed studio track. 'Five To One' closes the record with considerably more urgency, and 'Not To Touch The Earth' draws from the larger 'Celebration of the Lizard' composition, which is why those full lyrics appear printed inside the gatefold. The title track itself, 'Waiting For The Sun,' is absent from the LP entirely, a detail that still catches collectors off guard. It would surface years later on other compilations and releases. On Discogs, this pressing has logged over 20,000 collectors in the 'have' column and over 3,600 in the 'want' column, reflecting the album's broad reach rather than scarcity. There are numerous other pressings and regional variants of this title documented in the catalog, including various different format editions on Reel-to-Reel and Cassette that differ meaningfully in label design, matrix, and packaging. Collectors chasing the original US pressing specifically should verify the elongated 'Stereo' text on the label and the brown/tan label coloring before committing to a purchase. The gatefold 'Celebration of the Lizard' insert is another authentication point worth confirming in person. For those who also track compilation appearances, The Doors: Two On One pairs this album with Strange Days on CD for a different kind of acquisition entirely.

This original US pressing of EKS-74024 is a recommended acquisition for any serious Doors collection. It is not rare by strict standards given the high pressing numbers, but a clean copy with the brown/tan label, intact gatefold, correct inner sleeve, and an original 'Hello, I Love You' sticker still adhered is meaningfully harder to find than the raw Discogs numbers suggest. It belongs on the shelf.