‘Pop Idol’ champion Will Young returns with something a little more original than his bland winner’s single…
Light My Fire, by Will Young (his 2nd of four #1s)
2 weeks, from 2nd – 16th June 2002
Okay, original might be a stretch. It is another cover, this time of the Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’. But the treatment he gives this sixties classic is light and breezy. Presumably knowing that he couldn’t give it the full-blooded Jim Morrison treatment, Young goes for a slinky, still very sixties-coded, approach. There’s a sexy bossa nova beat, and a pretty cool guitar solo. It owes much more to José Feliciano’s version (a bigger hit in the UK) than the original.
It’s actually… okay. You may detect a hint of surprise there, and you’d be right. Back in 2002, when I was sixteen, it was very much the done thing to write this single off without actually listening to it, and to make sure everyone knew that you knew this was a cover. ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe he’s done that to the Doors’, we could be heard saying, probably without very many of us having actually ever heard the original, or even knowing about the existence Feliciano’s version.
This was the first sign that Will Young might have had something about him, a hint at a career beyond the Simon Cowell sludge factory. That wouldn’t become fully apparent until his second album, but the signs were here. Compare this with Gareth Gates’ – still very successful – second single (coming up on top of the charts soon, don’t you worry!)
Young had performed ‘Light My Fire’ during his auditions for ‘Pop Idol’, so he presumably liked the song – not something that he would say about ‘Evergreen’. He also performed it at the Eurovision-esque ‘World Idol’, in which the winners from various ‘Pop Idol’ franchises around the world competed against one another. He finished fifth.
With all this talk of ‘Light My Fire’s different versions, we need to mention Amii Stewart’s disco version, twice a UK Top 10 hit, and Shirley Bassey’s fabulously dramatic version from 1970. However, and possibly quite boringly, I’m going to stick my neck out for the seven-minute acidic psychedelia of the Doors. Sometimes the original is simply the best. And as much as Young’s version is tolerable, it’s still unfortunate that it gave the song a higher chart-placing than any of these classics.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Having just listened to this properly for perhaps the first time, I am happy to lay aside my general aspersions about anybody connected with Simon Cowell and his ilk and admit that it’s not unpleasant (faint praise in the manner of the late John Peel trying to avoid sounding unduly curmudgeonly, I suppose). I never liked the Jose Feliciano version, although the elder more easygoing person that I wasn’t as a 14-yr old can now see some merit in it. But I agree, Doors’ original was wonderful and I don’t think it can be bettered, as long as it’s the full album track with that sublime organ break and not the butchered 7” edit.
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Great cover. It really does sound very similar to Jose Feliciano’s rendition, which I happen to love, so it doesn’t bother me.
This is pretty good, he gets a little bit of bite in his vocal, but he has that pure upper register to fall back on.
I like this quite a bit more than his first No. 1 (both songs). Its definitely far more indebted to the Jose Feliciano version than The Doors original, but I really like the Feliciano version. Young does a good job with the vocals, though it would have been fascinating to see him try to go full Jim Morrison (though the Lizard King was pretty reined in on the original until the very end). Probably better he stuck to the safer path.
I was surprised The Doors had so few hits in the UK but bizarrely they might be more influential in the UK than the US. I hear a lot more of their influence on UK rock than US roclk. Gothic rock and post-punk owes a lot to The Doors. I know their standing in the UK grew a whole lot post-Morrison’s death to the point they were probably more popular in the 90s than they were in the 60s.
Yes, Light My Fire belatedly made the Top 10, but not until 1991.
I never heard the Doors original until sometime in the later 70’s, for me it was all about Jose Feliciano’s Spanish guitar laid-back hit cover, loved it when I was 10 and love it still – but I liked Will’s cover of his cover, it was pretty tasteful and went a way towards changing my opinion of his vocal ability. Light My Fire is one of those classic songs that can stand any number of genre covers and come out smelling of roses – I loved Amii Stewart’s banging disco cover, and The Doors’ dark rock original when I got to know that prior to it finally making the UK top 10 in the 90’s. My fave is still Jose’s though.
You are right…it’s more José Feliciano than the Doors to me…that is the version it sounds like. He didn’t do bad but I still would take the original.