Blue Öyster Cult is an American rock band formed on Long Island in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967. The band has sold 25 million records worldwide, including 7 million in the United States. The band's fusion of hard rock with psychedelia, and penchant for occult, fantastical and tongue-in-cheek lyrics, had a major influence on heavy metal music. They developed a cult following and, while achieving mainstream hits like "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (1976) and "Burnin' for You" (1981), their commercial success was limited. Both songs, and others such as "Godzilla" (1977), remain classic rock radio staples. The band were early adopters of the music video format, and their videos received heavy rotation on MTV in its early period.
Agents of Fortune is the fourth studio album by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released on May 21, 1976 by Columbia Records.
Imaginos is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band Blue Öyster Cult. It was released in 1988, and was their last recording with their original record label, CBS/Columbia Records.
Secret Treaties is the third studio album by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released on April 5, 1974 by Columbia. It features the same band members and production team as their previous album.
Neal Smith is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the rock group Alice Cooper from 1967 to 1974. He performed on the group's early albums Pretties for You and Easy Action, their breakout album Love It to Death and the subsequent successful albums Killer, School's Out, and Billion Dollar Babies. The last new studio album with the five original Alice Cooper group members participating in new music was Muscle of Love in 1973. The original group's Greatest Hits studio album was released in 1974. In 2018, a live performance album Live from the Astroturf recorded in 2015 was released, featuring four of the original group members performing eight of their hit songs, with long-time Alice Cooper solo band guitarist and friend Ryan Roxie interplaying lead guitar parts with original group rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, on behalf of original group lead guitarist Glen Buxton, who died in 1997 of pneumonia at age 49.
Blue Öyster Cult is the debut studio album by the American rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released in January 1972 by Columbia Records. The album featured songs such as "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars", and "Then Came the Last Days of May", all of which the band still plays regularly during its concerts. Despite positive reviews, the album failed to chart for some time before finally cracking the Billboard 200 chart on May 20, 1972, peaking at No. 172. Blue Öyster Cult toured with artists such as The Byrds, Alice Cooper and the Mahavishnu Orchestra to support the album.
Tyranny and Mutation, the second studio album by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult, was released in February 1973 by Columbia Records. It was produced by Murray Krugman and Sandy Pearlman. On May 12, 1973, the album peaked at No. 122 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Samuel Clarke "Sandy" Pearlman was an American music producer, artist manager, music journalist and critic, professor, poet, songwriter, and record company executive. He was best known for founding, writing for, producing, or co-producing many LPs by Blue Öyster Cult, as well as producing notable albums by The Clash, The Dictators, Pavlov's Dog, and Dream Syndicate; he was also the founding Vice President of eMusic.com. He was the Schulich Distinguished Professor Chair at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montreal, and from August 2014 held a Marshall McLuhan Centenary Fellowship at the Coach House Institute (CHI) of the University of Toronto Faculty of Information as part of the CHI's McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology.
Dennis Dunaway is an American musician, best known as the original bass guitarist for the rock band Alice Cooper . He co-wrote some of the band's most notable songs, including "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out".
Fire of Unknown Origin is the eighth studio album by the American rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released on June 22, 1981. It was produced by Martin Birch.
Mirrors is the sixth studio album by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released on June 19, 1979. It was the first BÖC album not produced by long-time producer and manager Sandy Pearlman, instead being produced by Tom Werman.
Extraterrestrial Live is the third live album by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released in 1982 by Columbia Records. It primarily documents the band's 1981 tour in support of Fire of Unknown Origin, but also includes two tracks recorded in 1980 during the Mirrors Tour and the North American leg of Black Sabbath's Heaven & Hell Tour. Midway through the 1981 Fire of Unknown Origin tour, the band fired drummer and founding member Albert Bouchard, replacing him with roadie Rick Downey.
The Revölution by Night is the ninth studio album by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released on November 8, 1983. The album was intended to capitalize on the success of Fire of Unknown Origin two years prior, hence the blend of straight-ahead rock and pop elements. This was the first BÖC album not to feature all of the band's classic members, drummer Albert Bouchard having been fired during the previous tour and replaced by roadie Rick Downey.
Club Ninja is the tenth studio album by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released on December 10, 1985, in the United Kingdom and on February 11, 1986, in the United States. The album was intended as a comeback for the band, whose previous album The Revölution by Night failed to attain Gold status following the success of 1981's Fire of Unknown Origin and 1982's Extraterrestrial Live. Club Ninja sold more than 175,000 copies, falling well short of gold status again, and because of its high cost, Columbia Records executives deemed it a commercial failure. The album was re-issued on compact disc on March 10, 2009, by Sony-owned reissue label American Beat Records, which had also reissued the band's 1988 album, Imaginos.
Donald Roeser, known by his stage name Buck Dharma, is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is the sole constant member of hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult since the group's formation in 1967. He wrote and sang vocals on several of the band's best-known hits, including "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Godzilla" and "Burnin' for You".
"Astronomy" is a song by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult that has appeared on several of the band's albums. It was first released on their 1974 album Secret Treaties. Their second live album, Some Enchanted Evening, included a version with an extended guitar solo and a third version was included on the Imaginos album. It was also re-recorded for the band's Cult Classic collection in connection with the TV miniseries of Stephen King's The Stand. Most recently, the song was included on the A Long Day's Night album.
"Godzilla" is a single by U.S. hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult, the first track on the band's fifth studio album Spectres. The lyrics are a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the popular movie monster of the same name. The single release had a picture sleeve featuring a promotional still from the movie Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster. Despite failing to chart, the song received significant airplay on rock radio stations and became a sleeper hit. The song, along with "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "Burnin' for You," is one of the band's best-known songs and has become a staple of its live performances. It has been covered by bands such as moe., Racer X, Fu Manchu, The Smashing Pumpkins, Sebastian Bach, Double Experience and Fighting Gravity. It was the walk up song for New York Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui from 2003-2009.
St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings is a compilation album consisting of recordings by the American rock band the Stalk–Forrest Group, who would later be known as Blue Öyster Cult. It is a combination of two albums recorded by the group for Elektra Records – one in 1969 and the other in 1970 – as well as the promotional single "What is Quicksand?" released in 1970. Except for the single, the tracks were not officially released until 2001, although bootlegs had existed and individual tracks had been released as bonus tracks to other albums.
"Burnin' for You" is a song by American hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult. It was released as the lead single from the band's eighth studio album, Fire of Unknown Origin, released in June 1981, where it was the album's second track. The song was co-written by guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser and rock critic songwriter Richard Meltzer, who wrote lyrics for several of the band's songs. Roeser sang lead vocals on the song in lieu of Blue Öyster Cult's usual lead vocalist Eric Bloom.
