The band took their name from the title of Aldous Huxley's book "The Doors of Perception", itself derived from a line in William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell": "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite".
Klaviaturist Manzarek je bil v bandu Rick & the Ravens z bratom Rickom in Jimom, bobnar John Densmore pa je igral v The Psychedelic Rangers.