| "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byBlue Öyster Cult | ||||
| from the albumAgents of Fortune | ||||
| B-side | "Tattoo Vampire" | |||
| Released | 1976 | |||
| Recorded | 1975 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length |
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| Label | Columbia | |||
| Songwriter | Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser | |||
| Producers | ||||
| Blue Öyster Cult singles chronology | ||||
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| Official audio | ||||
| "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" on YouTube | ||||
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" is a song by the American rock bandBlue Öyster Cult from the 1976 albumAgents of Fortune. Written and sung by the lead guitarist,Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, it deals with eternal love and the inevitability of death.[4] Dharma wrote it while picturing an early death for himself.
Released as an editedsingle (omitting the slow building interlude in the original), the song is Blue Öyster Cult's highest chart success, reaching #7 inCash Box and #12 on theBillboard Hot 100 in late 1976. Critical reception was positive and in December 2003 "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was listed at number 405 onRolling Stone's list of the top 500 songs of all time.[5]
The song is about the inevitability of death and the foolishness of fearing it. The singer and lead guitarist,Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, wrote it while thinking about what would happen if he died at a young age.[6] He usedRomeo andJuliet as an example of a couple who wanted to be together in the afterlife.[7] He guessed that "40,000 men and women" died each day, and the figure was used several times in the lyrics, but it is about 100,000 too low.[8]
Lyrics such as "Romeo and Juliet are together in eternity" led many listeners to interpret the song to be about amurder–suicide pact.[9][4] Dharma said he was appalled that some listeners interpreted the song as encouraging suicide. He instead meant the lyrics as a plea not to fear death, as opposed to actively bringing it about, and said it was "a love song where the love transcends the actual physical existence of the partners".[6]
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was written and sung by Dharma and produced byDavid Lucas,Murray Krugman, andSandy Pearlman.[10] The song's distinctive guitar riff is built on the I-bVII-bVIchord progression in A minor.[11] The riff was recorded with Krugman'sGibson ES-175 guitar, which was run through aMusic Man 410 combo amplifier, and Dharma's vocals were captured with aTelefunkenU47 tube microphone. The guitar solo and guitar rhythm sections were recorded in one take, while a four-track tape machine amplified them on the recording. Recording engineerShelly Yakus remembers piecing together the separate vocals, guitar and rhythm section into a master track, with theoverdubbing occurring in that order.[12]
Mojo described its creation: "'Guys, this is it!' engineer Shelly Yakus announced at the end of the first take. 'The legendary once-in-a-lifetime groove!' ... What evolved in the studio was the extended solo section; it took them nearly as long to edit the five-minute track down to manageable length as it did to record it."[13]
The song features thecowbell percussion instrument overdubbed on the original recording.[4] BassistJoe Bouchard remembered the producer requesting that his brother, drummerAlbert Bouchard, play the cowbell: "Albert thought he was crazy. But he put all this tape around a cowbell and played it. It really pulled the track together."[14] However, producerDavid Lucas says that he played it,[15] and bandmemberEric Bloom says he did.[16]
The song was on theBillboard Hot 100 chart for 20 weeks, reaching number 12 for the weeks of November 6 and November 13, 1976.[17] It was the band's highest-charting U.S. song and helpedAgents of Fortune reach number 29 on theBillboard 200.[18] "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" charted even higher in Canada, peaking at number 7.[19] The single edit was released in the UK in July 1976 (CBS 4483) but failed to chart. The unedited album version was released as a single (CBS 6333) in May 1978, where it reached number 16 on theUK Singles Chart.[20]
The song received critical acclaim.Record World said that "An 'Eight Miles High' guitar line is complemented by smooth vocals."[21]Denise Sullivan ofAllMusic praised the song's "gentle vocals and virtuoso guitar" and "haunting middle break which delivers the listener straight back to the heart of the song once the thunder is finished".[22] Nathan Beckett called it the band's "masterpiece" and compared the vocals tothe Beach Boys.[23] Writing forPopMatters, James Mann called it a "landmark, genre-defining masterpiece" that was "as grand and emotional as American rock and roll ever got".[24]Pitchfork also called the song a masterpiece.[25] In 2020,Classic Rock wrote the song "remained one of the most instantly recognisable tracks in the whole genre, and it continues to turn up in surprising places even today".[26]
with:
| Chart (1976–1978) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canada Top Singles (RPM)[29] | 7 |
| Ireland (IRMA)[30] | 17 |
| UK Singles (OCC)[31] | 16 |
| USBillboard Hot 100[32] | 12 |
| Chart (2017–2025) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| USHot Rock & Alternative Songs (Billboard)[33] | 9 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[34] | Platinum | 600,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[35] | 6× Platinum | 6,000,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
In 1976Rolling Stone named "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" the song of the year,[10] and in 2004 the magazine placed the song 397th on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time";[37] the 2010 version of the list moved it down to 405th.[10] In 1997Mojo listed the song as the 80th-best single of all time,[38] whileQ ranked it 404th in its 2003 countdown of the "1001 Best Songs Ever."[39]
WhenThe Guardian released its unranked list of "1000 Songs Everyone Must Hear" in 2009, the song was included. The publication wrote that the song's charm "lies in the disjuncture between its gothic storyline and the sprightly,Byrdsian guitar line that carries it."[9] In his bookThe Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made, rock criticDave Marsh ranked the song 997th.[40]
The song was memorialized in the April 2000Saturday Night Live comedy sketch "More Cowbell".[4] The six-minute sketch presents a fictionalized version of the recording of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" on an episode of VH1'sBehind the Music.Will Ferrell wrote the sketch and played Gene Frenkle, a cowbell player. "Legendary" producer Bruce Dickinson, played byChristopher Walken, asked Frenkle to "really explore the studio space" and up the ante on his cowbell playing. The rest of the band is visibly annoyed by Frenkle, but Dickinson tells everyone, "I got afever, and the onlyprescription ismore cowbell!" Buck Dharma said that the sketch was fantastic and he never gets tired of it[14] but also lamented that it made the song lose its "creepy" vibe for some time.[41]
Red Hot Chili Peppers performed a segment of the song on May 22, 2014,[42] as the conclusion of a drumming contest between Ferrell and the band's drummer,Chad Smith. As in theSNL sketch, Ferrell played cowbell for the rendition, which appeared on an episode ofThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.[43][44]
Stephen King cited the song as one of his inspirations for his novelThe Stand. He began the novel a year earlier, in 1975, but developedwriter's block. The song was released around that time and its lyrics are quoted at the novel's beginning.[45] It also appears as the opening theme song forthe 1994 TV miniseries based on the novel,[45][24] and was used as the end credits music for the fifth episode of the2020–21 miniseries adaptation.
In the 1978 filmHalloween, the song plays in the car whenJamie Lee Curtis's andNancy Kyes's characters,Laurie Strode andAnnie Brackett, are being stalked by serial killerMichael Myers. It is the only licensed song featured in the film.[46] It is used again in the 2022 sequelHalloween Ends, playing over the final scene and ending credits.[47]
In the 1994 bookThe Discworld Companion, byTerry Pratchett andStephen Briggs, the family motto ofMort of Sto Helit is revealed to be "Non Timetis Messor",dog Latin for "don't fear the reaper".[48] This is referenced again in Pratchett's 1997 novelHogfather,[49] the first reference in the mainlineDiscworld series. In 2010,Hubert Chesshyre designed Pratchett's coat of arms, which features the motto "Noli Timere Messorem", a corrected Latin translation of "don't fear the reaper".[50]
The 1994 filmThe Stoned Age features the song when a character calls it "a pussy song" despite being performed by Blue Oyster Cult.[51]
The 2022 horror filmX byA24 has the song playing on the protagonists' van radio at the film's climactic midpoint. The slasher nature of the scene, as well as the film's setting in 1979, suggests an intentional homage by directorTi West toHalloween.[52]
Variations of the song are used throughout the 2021 video gameReturnal: the vocal melody played on a piano appears as a key memory of the protagonist, an expansion of that theme is played on an organ by one of thebosses, and the original song appears unaltered in a flashback sequence.[53]
The 2006 video gamePrey features the song playing on a jukebox as Jen's bar is attacked.[54][55]
The Simpsonsseason 13 episode 2, "The Parent Rap" references the song, which also plays during the episode's end credits, andinspired the title of a later episode.[56]George Meyer, one of the writers, later got to meet the band, who said that they were "stoked" to be referenced in aSimpsons episode.[57]
The 2022 Netflix series1899 features the song in Episode 4 before the end credits roll.[58]
The 2013 Netflix seriesOrange Is the New Black features the song in Episode 26 (the last episode of Season 2) before the end credits roll.[59]
The song was featured in the video gameFortnite Festival.[60]
Meanwhile, Blue Oyster Cult released two of the decade's hard rock favorites: 'Don't Fear the Reaper' and 'Godzilla'.
'Reaper' was a one-off return to their 60s psychedelic roots.
The album yielded the band's biggest single with '(Don't Fear) The Reaper,' a multi-textured, deeply melodic soft rock song with psychedelic overtones.
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