Audio Video News

Rhino Entertainment today announced that it will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Door’s classic Waiting For The Sun with a special package featuring a remastered version of the original stereo mix on CD and 180-gram vinyl LP plus a second CD with 14 previously unreleased tracks.

Waiting For The Sun: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition ($50) is slated for release September 14 along with digital download and streaming versions of the music.

The album was remastered using MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) technology and the original master tapes by Bruce Botnick, longtime engineer/mixer for the Doors. The second CD features nine recently discovered “rough mixes” from the original recording sessions and five live recordings from a 1968 show in Copenhagen.

Waiting For The Sun, the Doors’ third studio album, was the band’s third platinum album in less than two years and its first album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard album charts. Over the years WFTS has sold millions of copies around the globe and contributed the instantly recognizable classic “Hello, I Love You,” which became the band’s second No. 1 hit when it topped the Billboard singles chart on August 3, 1968 and stayed there for two weeks.

Now, exactly 50 years later, Rhino will release a special 7-inch version of the single with its B-side “Love Street,” both derived from mono mixes that were distributed to radio stations in 1968. The mono remix of “Hello, I Love You” was available as part of last year’s The Singles CD collection but makes its vinyl debut here, while the “Love Street” mix is being released commercially for the first time. The 7-inch single will cost $10 and is slated for release August 3.

Botnick’s remastered stereo mix of WFTS adds new sonic dimensions to songs like “The Unknown Soldier” and “Spanish Caravan,” according to Rhino, but that wasn’t his only contribution to the project. While going through his archive, Botnick uncovered a cache of rough mixes from the album’s recording sessions that hadn’t been played in 50 years.

“I prefer some of these rough mixes to the finals, as they represent all of the elements and additional background vocals, different sensibilities on balances, and some intangible roughness, all of which are quite attractive and refreshing,” he said.

The unreleased live recordings from the September 17, 1968 concert in Copenhagen feature the then new songs “Hello, I Love You,” “Five To One,” and “The Unknown Soldier” plus “Back Door Man” and from the band’s 1967 eponymous debut album and the spoken word piece “The WASP,” which was eventually released on 1971’s LA Woman.

When the Doors recorded WFTS, they were one the first bands to use Dolby A301 noise reduction processors, which was cutting-edge technology at the time. Advanced sound recording innovations were also used to make the anniversary edition of the album, which was encoded using MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) technology. The MQA-encoded disc plays back on all CD players as standard CD quality but if the player is connected to an MQA-enabled device, it will play the music at its original sample rate.

As part of the 50th Anniversary celebration, the band has also reprinted the original 1968 Doors concert program for the first time and made it available exclusively at thedoors.com. The program was produced for the band’s 1968 U.S. tour but only sold at a few shows and via mail order. Designed by Paul Ferrara, the 24-page booklet includes many color and black-and-white images taken by Ferrara, plus poetry by Jim Morrison, astrology charts for each band member, and more.

Visit thedoors.com to pre-order Waiting For The Sun: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition and the new 7-inch version of “Hello I Love You.”