Blue Öyster Cult

Blue Öyster Cult
1977 publicity photo of Blue Öyster Cult with the 1971–81 lineup, L-R: Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser; Eric Bloom; Albert Bouchard; Allen Lanier; Joe Bouchard
Background information
Also known as	Soft White Underbelly (1967–1971)
Origin	Long Island, New York, United States
Genres	Hard rock heavy metal psychedelic rock progressive rock
Years active	1967–1986, 1987–present (Soft White Underbelly to Blue Öyster Cult)
Labels	Columbia CMC
Website	Blueoystercult.com
Members	Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser Eric Bloom Richie Castellano Jules Radino Kasim Sulton
Past members	See Former members below

Blue Öyster Cult (often abbreviated BÖC) is an American rock band formed in Long Island, New York in 1967, whose most successful work includes the hard rock and heavy metal songs "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Godzilla" and "Burnin' for You". Blue Oyster Cult has sold over 24 million records worldwide, including 7 million records in the United States alone. The band's music videos, especially "Burnin' for You", received heavy rotation on MTV when the music television network premiered in 1981, cementing the band's contribution to the development and success of the music video in modern pop culture.

Blue Öyster Cult's longest lasting and most commercially successful lineup included Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (lead guitar, vocals), Eric Bloom (lead vocals, "stun guitar"), Allen Lanier (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Joe Bouchard (bass, backing vocals) and Albert Bouchard (drums, percussion, backing vocals). The band's current lineup includes Roeser and Bloom, as well as Jules Radino (drums, percussion), Richie Castellano (keyboard, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), and Kasim Sulton (bass, backing vocals).

The band originated as a group called Soft White Underbelly (a name the band would later occasionally use in the 1970s and 1980s to play small club gigs around the U.S.) in 1967 in the vicinity of Stony Brook University on Long Island, New York, at the prompting of critic and manager Sandy Pearlman consisting of guitarist Buck Dharma, drummer Albert Bouchard, keyboardist Allen Lanier, singer Les Braunstein and bassist Andrew Winters. Pearlman wanted the group to be the American answer to Black Sabbath. Pearlman was important to the band – he was able to get them gigs and recording contracts with Elektra and Columbia, and he provided them with his poetry for use as lyrics for many of their songs, including "Astronomy". Writer Richard Meltzer also provided the band with lyrics from their early days up through their most recent studio album. Pearlman also gave stagenames to each of the band members (Jesse Python for Eric Bloom, Andy Panda for Andy Winters, Prince Omega for Albert Bouchard, La Verne for Allen Lanier) but only Buck Dharma kept his. The band recorded an album's worth of material for Elektra Records in 1968. When Braunstein departed in early 1969, Elektra shelved the album.