The Doors’ fourth studio album, The Soft Parade was released 50 years ago on July 18, 1969. Despite featuring one of the group’s biggest hits – Touch Me – it remains the most-polarizing record of The Doors’ career thanks to the brass and string arrangements that embellish several tracks.
To commemorate the album’s 50th year anniversary, Rhino reimagines The Soft Parade on a newly expanded 3CD/1LP set which includes the original studio album – and the B-side Who Scared You – newly remastered by Bruce Botnick, The Doors’ longtime engineer and mixer. The collection is a limited edition of 15,000 individually numbered copies and also includes the original album on 180-gram vinyl along with liner notes by noted rock journalist David Fricke.
The core of the new collection is comprised of more than a dozen unreleased songs. Among the highlights are stripped down Doors Only versions of five tracks where the horns and strings have been removed (Tell All The People, Touch Me, Wishful Sinful, Runnin’ Blue, and Who Scared You.) The set also features three of those stripped-back versions with new guitar parts added by Robby Krieger (Touch Me, Wishful Sinful, and Runnin’ Blue).