The Soft Parade

After a long tour the band had little new material, and Rothchild recommended a fuller sound with brass and strings arranged by Paul Harris, played by Los Angeles jazz musicians. Densmore and Manzarek, who had jazz backgrounds, agreed. Morrison declined to use orchestral accompaniment on his own songs. Krieger wrote half the tracks, and after Morrison refused at first to sing Krieger's line in Tell All the People, the album became the first to credit songwriters individually. Curtis Amy played the saxophone solo on Touch Me. The sessions at the newly opened Elektra Sound West studio dragged on, and it was by far the most expensive of their albums.

It peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 and did not chart in Britain. Touch Me, released in December 1968, reached number three on the Hot 100. The album was poorly received by critics and by the band's underground following. In 2006 Pitchfork's Stuart Berman put it in the same file of spectacular failures as the Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request.