Jimmy Fallon Singing "Reading Rainbow" As Jim Morrison Is Seriously Uncanny
The Tonight Show Host's 2011 impression is featured in the new documentary, Butterfly in the Sky: The Story of Reading Rainbow.
Jimmy Fallon broke on through (to the other side) with this uncanny impression of The Doors frontman, Jim Morrison.
In 2011, Fallon brought psychedelic rock to the stage of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (which the now-Tonight Show host helmed from 2009 to 2014) when he channeled the "Light My Fire" singer, wearing a shoulder length curly wig, with a leather jacket and pants. The spot-on swagger of the late Morrison is so perfect that even Val Kilmer (who played the rocker in 1991's film The Doors) would do a double take.
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While Fallon looks and sounds just like Morrison in the video, he isn't singing one of The Doors' classic tracks, but instead doing a cover of the theme song to the PBS educational series, Reading Rainbow. In the extended version of the performance, Fallon lists off titles of classic children's books like Indian in the Cupboard, Goodnight Moon, Horton Hears a Who, and Very Hungry Caterpillar — which, when sung like Morrison, sound like they could be lyrics from a Doors song.
Jimmy Fallon's Jim Morrison impression featured in Reading Rainbow documentary
Fallon's impression is being rediscovered thanks to the new documentary, Butterfly in the Sky: The Story of Reading Rainbow, which features the clip during the closing credits.
"I get a call from Jimmy Fallon's producer. 'We'd like to license the Reading Rainbow theme song. Jimmy's going to do this thing where he's going to be Jim Morrison of The Doors,'" recalled theme song's co-writer, Steve Horelick, in the documentary. "I love the version of Jimmy Fallon doing it as Jim Morrison."
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Host recently re-shared the Late Night performance in honor of the new documentary. In the video's caption on Facebook, Fallon wrote: "I grew up watching Reading Rainbow and would go to the library to check out the recommendations made by the kids. I loved LeVar Burton and I also loved the theme song."
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Doing a Doors version of the Reading Rainbow theme song might not be the most obvious choice, but it's an inspired one — leaving us to wish Fallon would break out his Morrison impression again.
