<P> The song "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult does indeed feature a cowbell playing throughout the song . According to Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, the lead singer and author - composer of the song, the sketch accurately portrays the band's look during the 1970s, but it inaccurately portrays some of the details of the actual recording: </P> <Ul> <Li> The sketch has the recording session taking place at Sunshine Studios in late 1976 . In reality, the song was recorded at the Record Plant in New York City, in late 1975 or early 1976 (the album the song first appeared on, Agents of Fortune, was released in May 1976). </Li> <Li> Parnell plays the group's lead singer, "Eric". While Eric Bloom was the band's lead singer, Roeser performed lead vocals for the song . </Li> <Li> Gene Frenkle is a fictional character invented for the sketch, although his appearance was modeled on Eric Bloom's appearance at the time . Despite the fact that Frenkle is fictional, fans occasionally express their sympathies to Blue Öyster Cult over his death . </Li> <Li> Christopher Walken portrays producer The Bruce Dickinson, not to be confused with the Iron Maiden vocalist of the same name . Dickinson was not the actual producer of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper ." The song was produced by David Lucas, who had discovered the band and produced their first album, and also Agents of Fortune and Spectres . Sandy Pearlman was their longtime manager and lyric writer . Murray Krugman represented Columbia Records . The actual Bruce Dickinson was a mid-level manager at Columbia Records whose name appears on a Blue Öyster Cult reissue CD and a greatest hits compilation as the "reissue producer". The SNL intern who was sent out to get the record got the Best Hits CD instead of the Agents of Fortune original CD . </Li> <Li> Ferrell later revealed that a woman working in the art department of SNL was the daughter of a man who worked on Agents of Fortune . She reportedly told him that the band had seen the sketch and said the actual cowbell player in question was not unlike Ferrell's interpretation . Producer David Lucas, on his website and in interviews when he was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame, says that he was the one who played the cowbell . </Li> </Ul> <Li> The sketch has the recording session taking place at Sunshine Studios in late 1976 . In reality, the song was recorded at the Record Plant in New York City, in late 1975 or early 1976 (the album the song first appeared on, Agents of Fortune, was released in May 1976). </Li> <Li> Parnell plays the group's lead singer, "Eric". While Eric Bloom was the band's lead singer, Roeser performed lead vocals for the song . </Li>

Will ferrell playing cowbell on saturday night live