Break On Through

"Break On Through (To the Other Side)" is a song by The Doors from their debut album, The Doors. It was the first single released by the band and was unsuccessful compared to later hits, reaching only #101 in the United States. Despite this, it remains one of the band's signature and most popular songs and became a concert staple.

Twenty-four years after its original US release, "Break on Through" became a minor hit in the UK, peaking at #64 in the singles chart.

Overview

The song also appears as track one on the band's debut album. Elektra Records' censors objected to the drug use implied by the line "she gets high", which is repeated in the middle section of the song (after the line "everybody loves my baby"). The original album version and all reissues until the 1990s have the word "high" deleted, with Morrison singing "she gets" four times before a final wail. Live versions and more recent, remastered releases have the full line portion restored.

Musical structure

The song is in 4/4 time and quite fast paced, the tune being similar to that of blues guitarist Elmore James' "Stranger Blues".

The piece begins with a jazz-flavored drum groove similar the opening phrases played by Billy Higgins on Dexter Gordon's "Soy Califa," in which a clave pattern is played as a rim click underneath a driving ride cymbal pattern. John Densmore appreciated the new (at the time) Bossa Nova craze coming from Brazil. So he decided to use it in the song.

It is then joined in by a disjointed quirky solo on the organ quite similar to introduction of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say", which has a few intentional misplaced notes in it, while the bass-line, similar to a typical bass line used in bossa nova, continues almost unhindered all of the way through the song.

Robby's guitar riff initially came from the Bobby Butterfield song Shake Your Moneymaker. He changed around some of the notes, as well as the beat and came up with the guitar for the song.

Other performances

Stone Temple Pilots covered the song for The Doors tribute album Stoned Immaculate. Mexican hard rock band La Cuca has done a cover as a hidden track in their album La Racha.

When the Doors were featured on an episode of VH1 Storytellers, various guest singers filled in for Jim Morrison. Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots filled in and sang "Break on Through", along with the song he said inspired him to rock, "Five to One".

Serbian rock band Night Shift covered the song in 2002 on their debut album Undercovers.

Appearances in Media

• In the Oliver Stone film, The Doors, the song is performed twice; first during the band's early days at the London Fog, and later in the film at the infamous Miami concert, immediately after Jim exposes himself to the audience and is parading through the crowd to evade the police. The second performance is paired with "Dead Cats, Dead Rats".
• The song is heard in the film Forrest Gump (along with "Hello, I Love You" and "People Are Strange") as Forrest takes up ping pong during his tour in Vietnam.
• Appears in the video game Tony Hawk's Underground 2.
• Featured in the trailer for the 2008 film 21.
• A remixed version of the song is featured in the video game Burnout Revenge. It's performed by Bt and it is 7:08 long.
• Featured in the film Jarhead (2005).
• Featured on The Simpsons during a 4th Season episode when Krusty sings during a flashback to 1972.