LA Woman / Roadhouse Blues

The Doors' 1980 Spun Gold E-45122 US 45 pairs full-length L.A. Woman and Roadhouse Blues on Elektra's budget reissue label.

Elektra's Spun Gold Series reissue of LA Woman / Roadhouse Blues, catalog number E-45122, was pressed in the US and released in 1980. The Spun Gold line was Elektra's budget reissue program for catalog titles, designed to keep proven sellers in print at accessible price points. This particular coupling pairs two of the most commercially durable tracks in The Doors' catalog on a standard 7-inch single.

The photo shows the A-side label, and it is a clean, utilitarian design that is immediately recognizable to anyone familiar with the Spun Gold series. The label background is a warm, burnished gold color, which gives the line its name. At the top, "SPUN GOLD" is printed in bold capital letters, with the Elektra butterfly logo nestled just beneath it, rendered in the same restrained style Elektra used across the series. The catalog number E-45122-A appears on the right side of the label. Below the Elektra branding, the artist name reads "THE DOORS" in clean uppercase type, followed by the track title "L.A. Woman" with the songwriting credit noting The Doors in parentheses. Timing is listed as 7:49, which suggests this is the full album version rather than an edited single cut. Additional text confirms the track is from the album L.A. Woman and credits production to Bruce Botnick and The Doors. ASCAP and Doors Music Co. publishing information is present on the left side. The label typography is businesslike throughout, with no attempt at visual flair beyond the gold background itself. According to the Discogs notes, both the Rockefeller Plaza and Sunset Boulevard addresses appear on the bottom rim of the label, a detail that helps date and place this pressing within Elektra's transitional period. The disc itself, based on the label presentation, is consistent with standard domestic pressings of the era. No picture sleeve appears to accompany this copy, which is typical for Spun Gold reissues.

The pairing of "L.A. Woman" and "Roadhouse Blues" on a single is not unique to this release. Collectors tracking the lineage of these two tracks will know that "Roadhouse Blues" appeared earlier on the Roadhouse Blues / Albinoni Adagio single pressed in other markets, and the original Morrison Hotel release provides additional context for how "Roadhouse Blues" was handled commercially in different periods. What distinguishes E-45122 specifically is its placement within the Spun Gold catalog and its 1980 release date, arriving roughly nine years after the original album material and capitalizing on continued interest in The Doors following Jim Morrison's death in 1971. The use of the 7:49 full-length version of "L.A. Woman" on the A-side is notable; many 45 configurations of album tracks default to edited versions, so pressing the uncut take signals that Elektra was pitching this toward existing fans rather than chasing radio play. The Discogs community data is instructive here: 508 collectors currently have this single logged, and 149 have it on their want list. Those numbers place it in solidly common-to-moderately-sought territory. It is not a scarce find, but the want-to-have ratio suggests consistent secondary market movement. Collectors building comprehensive US 45 runs of Doors material will need this one, particularly those who track Elektra label variants across different pressing eras. For comparative context on how Elektra packaged The Doors across compilations during the same general period, the Classics compilation and the Light My Fire single both reflect Elektra's ongoing effort to keep the catalog commercially active through the late 1970s and into the 1980s. The Spun Gold series itself was a pragmatic vehicle for exactly that purpose, and E-45122 is a straightforward example of it. No bonus material, no alternate takes, no regional exclusives are known to be associated with this pressing.

This is a common catalog reissue with no particular scarcity. It belongs in a complete US 45 collection of The Doors, and the Discogs numbers confirm there is real collector demand for it, but you should be able to source a clean copy without difficulty or significant expense. If your focus is on original-era Elektra 45 pressings rather than reissues, this one sits firmly in the reissue column. Condition and label integrity are what matter most when evaluating copies of E-45122.