In 1967, Pearlman hand-picked musicians for a rock band to perform the lyrics that he was writing, based on his
Imaginos poems. He dubbed the band "Soft White Underbelly" (from a
World War II speech by
Winston Churchill) and later changed their name to "
Blue Öyster Cult". He managed the band (with
Murray Krugman) from 1967 to 1995, and produced or co-produced 7 of their studio albums, and 4 of their live albums. Significantly, Pearlman was co-producer, with
David Lucas and Murray Krugman, of BÖC's "
(Don't Fear) The Reaper" in 1976. The song reached No. 12 on the Top 40 charts and has remained an FM radio staple since. On the
Rolling Stone list of top 500 songs of all time, it is listed as No. 405. Pearlman also worked as a full-time artist manager, managing the careers of Blue Öyster Cult,
Black Sabbath (1979–1983),
Romeo Void,
The Dictators,
Shakin' Street,
Aldo Nova and others. In the 1980s, he pioneered the mega-tour stadium format of several bands traveling together, sharing promotional costs and production and travel costs, a format persisting today with the
Lollapalooza Festival, the
Lilith Fair and related tour packages. In 1983, Pearlman leased Studio C in San Francisco's
The Automatt Studios from studio owner
David Rubinson and dubbed it Time Enough World Enough Studios. After The Automatt closed in 1984, he leased Studio C at
Hyde Street Studios from studio owner Dan Alexander. Pearlman ran a recording operation in Studio C as
Alpha & Omega Studio from 1986 until 1991. He also used it for his own projects, including those on his short-lived MCA-distributed label
Popular Metaphysics, and he also sub-leased it to other producers and artists. In 1989 he took over as
president of the
alternative record company
415 Records and established a production and distribution deal for the label with
MCA Records, before purchasing the company and changing the label's name to
Popular Metaphysics. The label was short lived, but it signed a few solid acts and released their records on the
MCA label, including
Love Club (1990),
Manitoba's Wild Kingdom (1990), and
World Entertainment War (1991). The 1991 edition of Mark Garvey's ''Songwriters' Market'', published in 1990, carried a listing that read as follows: "*SANDY PEARLMAN, INC., 245 Hyde St., San Francisco CA 94102. (415)885-4999. A&R Director: Natasha V. Record producer, record company (Popular Metaphysics, formerly 415), recording studio (Alpha & Omega Recording, Hyde Street Studios)." In the late 1990s, Pearlman served as the founding vice-president of
e-music.com, a
subscription store for download-to-own
online music and
audiobooks that is headquartered in
New York City and now owned by Dimensional Associates. eMusic was one of the first sites to sell music in the MP3 format, beginning in 1998. As of September 2008, eMusic had over 400,000 subscribers. He also served as
vice-president of media development for
MoodLogic.com, the first on-line music recommendation engine, from 2000 to 2003. In 2009, Sandy Pearlman was appointed as an at-large member of the
National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB) of the
Library of Congress. Pearlman was the Schulich Distinguished Chair of
music at
McGill University in
Montreal, specializing in the programs in
music theory, sound recording and music technology; he later served as Centenary Fellow at the McLuhan Center for Culture and Technology at the
University of Toronto, where he co-taught a course on Digital Media Distribution. Additionally, he was a visiting lecturer at
Harvard University,
Stanford University,
University of California, Berkeley,
University of California, Santa Cruz, and an invited speaker at the
Mill Valley Film Festival,
Future of Music Coalition, Canadian Music Week and
SxSW Festivals. As a Professor and as a public speaker, Pearlman lectured on the architecture of the music industry, strategies for re-monetizing music downloads, and the history and future of music. He owned
Alpha & Omega Recording, a 72-track analog recording facility in
San Rafael, California. His production career was managed by
Peter Shershin at
Breathing Protection, Inc.
Awards Pearlman was the recipient of 17 gold and platinum records. == Death ==