Cover to Cover: Light My Fire

Funnily enough I bought both of these.
There was a period around the time of these releases when Rock ruled the roost and a few artists from other genres thought the way to increase their audience was to be open to this new 'group' phenomena. I believe Otis Redding did a Stones song (Satisfaction) as one example, even Dylan linking up with the Band was in this ballpark.
Jose Feliciano was a huge talent in what was then a minority musical field, Latin. We had 'la Bamba' and 'The Girl From Ipanena' and around this time Santana were getting started. (Indeed Santana covered a Peter Green Fleetwood Mac song). In this context I see Feliciano attempting to introduce a new musical style to people who maybe hadn't considered it much, being mainly into Rock and would like something familiar. Music in America has always been a glorious melting pot, so in that context I don't see the Feliciano cover as exploitative so much as a creative experiment. His version also showcased the artist as handy on the guitar and musically generally impressive. There are elements of the orchestration in the Jose Feliciano version that sound to me like they influenced some of the the production values of Astral Weeks (1968). Personally I think the Feliciano version is very good.
But.
The Doors version is so iconic, and so identifiable that is isn't open to that many covers unless you re-direct it as Feliciano has done. In this instance clearly The Doors version is the winner, mainly because it is what it is. However I don't see Jose Feliciano's version as being poor, or a desperate copy, simply different. But the original, with that Manzarek organ playing woven through it is excellent. Easy to forget the refreshing impact of the Doors sound when they first appeared as there have been sub sets of their sound ever since.