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July 13, 1996 At Riverfront Park in Nashville, Chet Atkins, Steve Earle and the Goo Goo Dolls join about 1000 other guitarists to jam on "Heartbreak Hotel" for nearly 80 minutes. They come up short in their bid to break the record for largest jam session, set in 1994 when 1,320 guitarists played "Takin' Care Of Business" in Vancouver.
July 11, 1996 The night before a show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin dies at age 34 after shooting heroin with drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, who is fired from the band a few days later (he returns to the fold in 1999). The Sarah McLachlan song "Angel" is inspired by Melvoin's death.
July 11, 1996 Alessia Cara is born Alessia Caracciolo in Ontario, Canada. After building a following posting cover songs on YouTube, she releases her first single, "Here," in 2015 and wins the Best New Artist Grammy three years later.
July 9, 1996 Thirteen-year-old LeAnn Rimes releases her debut album, Blue, and wows critics with the hits "Blue" and "One Way Ticket (Because I Can)."More
July 8, 1996 Spice Girls release their debut single, "Wannabe," in the UK. It shoots to #1, setting Spice-mania in motion. The single is released in the US in January 1997, and climbs to the top spot there as well.
July 5, 1996 Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, is born. She is named after Dolly Parton because the scientist thought the country star was the person most synonymous with mammary glands.
June 27, 1996 Fugees headline the "Hoodshock" festival in Harlem, which the group organized as a free event to encourage voter registration. The Notorious B.I.G., Sean "Puffy" Combs and Wu-Tang Clan also perform, but the event makes headlines for a panic set off at the end of the festival when a man fires gunshots into the air. In the chaos, about 30 people are injured.
June 27, 1996 The sixth edition of Lollapalooza launches at Longview Lake in Kansas City, Missouri. Defying tradition as a showcase for underground acts, the headliner is Metallica, with Soundgarden also on the bill. Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell bows out, and the tour lasts one more year before going on a 6-year hiatus.
June 26, 1996 Van Halen announce that Sammy Hagar, their lead singer since 1985, is no longer with the group and they're "in the studio working with original lead singer David Lee Roth." Roth records two new songs with the band for their first greatest hits album but is jilted when they bring on Gary Cherone as their new frontman in October.
June 25, 1996 Jay-Z issues his debut album, Reasonable Doubt, as the first release on his own label, Roc-A-Fella Records. The first track is "Can't Knock the Hustle," which features Mary J. Blige and tells the story of Jay's come-up in Brooklyn. Roc-A-Fella later partners with Def Jam Records, which appoints Jay-Z president in 2004.
June 19, 1996 Comedic composer Vivian Ellis, known for the 1929 musical number "Spread A Little Happiness," popularly covered by Sting in 1982, dies at age 92.
June 15, 1996 The Beastie Boys host the first Tibetan Freedom Concert, with performers that include Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins and John Lee Hooker. About 100,000 attend the two shows, raising money for the Milarepa Fund.More
June 8, 1996 The Fugees' reworking of "Killing Me Softly," featuring lead vocals by Lauryn Hill, goes to #1 in the UK, where it becomes the top-selling single of 1996.
June 8, 1996 "Mother Mother" by Tracy Bonham goes to #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart. She's the last female solo artist to top the chart until 2013, when Lorde claims the top spot with "Royals."
June 4, 1996 Metallica release Load, their first album in five years.More
May 29, 1996 This item appears in The Guardian: Newly widowed Stella Serth has been convicted of a public order offence in Tasmania. Mrs. Serth has been fined £200 for dancing on her husband's grave and singing "Who's Sorry Now?"
May 28, 1996 Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode takes a nasty speedball (cocaine and heroin) and goes into cardiac arrest. Medics manage to kickstart his heart, saving his life.More
May 26, 1996 Firemen arrive at the burning home of Eric Clapton to find the guitarist running in and out of the home to save his guitar collection. The house is gutted, with about three million dollars in damage.
May 25, 1996 Sublime frontman Brad Nowell dies of a heroin overdose at age 28, just one week after marrying Troy Dendekker, the mother of his 11-month-old son, Jakob.More
May 25, 1996 Powered by their funked-up cover of "Killing Me Softly," Fugees hit #1 in America with their second album, The Score. It ends up being the group's last album, as personal and professional differences lead to their breakup soon after.
May 23, 1996 The video for Metallica's "Until It Sleeps" debuts, showing the band with short hair for the first time.More
May 22, 1996 Mission: Impossible, starring Tom Cruise as superspy Ethan Hunt, debuts in theaters. A reboot of the classic '60s TV series, it features a hit electronic reimagining of Lalo Schifrin's iconic "Burning Fuse" theme from U2's Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen.
May 19, 1996 Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, Peter Frampton and Cypress Hill appear on the "Homerpalooza" episode of The Simpsons, a spoof on the Lollapalooza tour. Cypress Hill, the first rappers to guest star on the show, are accused of ordering the London Symphony Orchestra while high, and end up teaming with them on "Insane In The Brain."
May 18, 1996 Soundgarden perform for the first (and only) time on Saturday Night Live, playing "Pretty Noose" and "Burden In My Hand." Jim Carrey hosts.
May 18, 1996 Ireland wins the Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo, but the song everyone remembers is "Ooh Aah... Just A Little Bit," the UK entry by Gina G. It finishes eighth but becomes a global hit, the first Eurovision song since "Waterloo" by Abba to make an impact in America, where it goes to #12 and earns a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording.
May 11, 1996 The wonderfully titled Fairweather Johnson, the second album by Hootie & the Blowfish, debuts at #1 in America.
May 3, 1996 Country singer Patsy Montana dies in San Jacinto, California, at age 87. Known for her 1935 signature hit "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart," the tune that made her the first female country performer to have a million-selling single.
April 30, 1996 With "Satellite" from their 1994 major-label debut album Under The Table and Dreaming still getting airplay, The Dave Matthews Band release Crash, which provides a new set of radio hits, including "Crash Into Me," "So Much To Say" and "Too Much."
April 29, 1996 Phil Spector calls off a planned project to produce Celine Dion when they can't agree to terms.
April 24, 1996 After being forced to cancel shows, Stone Temple Pilots issue a statement saying that lead singer Scott Weiland has "become unable to rehearse or appear for these shows due to his dependency on drugs. He is currently under a doctor's care in a medical facility." Weiland sees this as a betrayal, and his relationship with his bandmates turns rocky.
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