October 3, 2006 "Listen to Your Heart," the power-ballad written by Per Gessle and Mats Persson, scoops a raft of prestigious honors at the 2006 BMI London Awards, presented at the Dorchester Hotel. Among other honors, the track receives the organization's highest accolade, the Robert S. Musel Award, for the most-performed song of the year.
October 2, 2006 Snoop Dogg guest stars on an episode of the Showtime series Weeds, where he jumpstarts Mary-Louise Parker's pot-growing business by placing a big order and doing a freestyle about it.
September 30, 2006 Farm Aid co-founders Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young are joined by Dave Matthews (The Dave Matthews Band), Steel Pulse, Gov't Mule, Jerry Lee Lewis, Steve Earle and Allison Moorer for the organization's 21st anniversary concert at the Tweeter Center in Camden, New Jersey.
September 30, 2006 Shine On, Jet's sophomore album, is released to mixed reviews. Most notably the indie music website Pitchfork's review is nothing but a video of a chimpanzee urinating into its own mouth. The title track and third single from the record, "Shine On," is a tribute to Nic and Chris Chester's dad, who died from cancer in 2004.
September 23, 2006 The Australian band Sick Puppies post a video set to their song "All The Same" where lead singer Shim Moore gives out free hugs to strangers, igniting the "Free Hugs" campaign. The video quickly goes viral and earns Moore an appearance on Oprah.
September 18, 2006 Willie Nelson's tour bus is stopped near Lafayette, Louisiana, and Nelson, along with four members of his band, are arrested for possession of marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.
September 17, 2006 Rock guitarist Al Casey dies at age 69 in Phoenix, Arizona. Often worked with Lee Hazlewood ("The Fool," "Surfin' Hootenanny") and Duane Eddy (for whom he wrote the early hit "Ramrod").
September 9, 2006 "SexyBack," the lead single from Justin Timberlake's second solo album, FutureSex: LoveSounds, hits #1 in America, where it stays for seven weeks. Timbaland and Nate "Danja" Hills are the producers - they're red hot, coming off Nelly Furtado's #1 "Promiscuous."
August 26, 2006 Taylor Hicks' "Do I Make You Proud?" drops out of the Hot 100 after just eight weeks, establishing a new record for the shortest stay on the chart for a #1 hit. A little perspective: "London Bridge" by Fergie is the 2006 #1 with the next-fewest weeks on the chart, with 21.
August 9, 2006 Christina Aguilera issues her first album in four years, Back To Basics. With a retro sound, it harks back to boogie-woogie of the 1940s with tracks like "Ain't No Other Man" (a tribute to her new husband) and "Candyman." It goes to #1, her first to do so since her 1999 debut.
July 22, 2006 The Johnny Cash album American V: A Hundred Highways, released three years after his death, goes to #1, becoming his only studio album to top the chart. It's part of a series of unadorned albums produced by Rick Rubin that started with American Recordings in 1994.
July 8, 2006 "Promiscuous" by Nelly Furtado goes to #1 for the first of six weeks. It features the red-hot producer Timbaland, who goes back and forth with Furtado on the song as they play out a flirtation in a club. Furtado says it's a positive song, with the girl letting the guy run his best game and then deciding if he's up to her standards.
July 1, 2006 During the brief time when American Idol Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks is the most popular Taylor in music, his first single, "Do I Make You Proud?," hits #1 in America.More
June 27, 2006 Eileen Barton, known for her 1950 hit "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked A Cake," dies of ovarian cancer at age 81.
June 25, 2006 Keith Urban marries the Australian actress Nicole Kidman, who was previously engaged to Lenny Kravitz. Kidman inspires many of Urban's songs, including "Got it Right This Time (The Celebration)" and "Once In A Lifetime." They announce their divorce in 2025.
June 20, 2006 Billy Preston's funeral is held at the Faithful Central Bible Church in Inglewood, California. Among the mourners are Little Richard, Andrae Crouch, Della Reese, The Temptations' Ali-Ollie Woodson and Joe Cocker, who sings his Preston-penned hit "You Are So Beautiful."More
June 17, 2006 Shakira lands her first #1 hit on the Hot 100 when her single "Hips Don't Lie," featuring Wyclef Jean, reaches the top of the tally. It also breaks the record for the most-played pop song in a single week when it's aired on American radio 9,637 times.More
June 16, 2006 The White Stripes win a lawsuit brought on by Ghetto Recorders studio owner Jim Diamond. Diamond claimed he produced the band's first two albums and that the band owed him royalties for his work. In reality, Jack White was the sole producer of those records and Diamond wasn't entitled to any more money as the band had already given him credit as engineer.
June 7, 2006 Nelly Furtado releases her third album, Loose. A Timbaland production, it includes two #1 hits: "Promiscuous" and "Say It Right."
June 6, 2006 Billy Preston, a virtuoso keyboardist who worked with the likes of Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and The Beatles, dies of kidney failure at age 59 after a long battle with kidney disease and hypertension. His funeral is held in Inglewood, California, on June 20th.
June 5, 2006 Elliot Easton of The Cars breaks his clavicle when the band's tour bus swerves to avoid an accident, and Easton falls out of the bunk. Performing with "The New Cars" fronted by Todd Rundgren, he plays four shows in a brace before getting surgery, which ends the tour.
June 3, 2006 At the Rock am Ring Festival in Nürburgring, Germany, Metallica perform their classic album Master Of Puppets in its entirety for the first time ever.
June 2, 2006 Muscle Shoals Sound Studios is added to the National Historic Register.More
June 2, 2006 Jackson Browne, Dar Williams and Pete Seeger play a hayloft in Garrison, New York, to kickstart Orleans founder John Hall's congressional campaign.More
June 2, 2006 Vince Welnick (keyboardist for The Tubes, Grateful Dead) commits suicide at age 55 after a long battle with depression.
June 1, 2006 The UK Albums chart turns 50 years old, and in a survey by the book of British Hit Singles and Albums and NME, Definitely Maybe by Oasis is voted the greatest album of all time. The Beatles come in second and third place with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Revolver; OK Computer by Radiohead is fourth and (What's the Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis comes in fifth.
May 20, 2006 The Finnish band Lordi win the Eurovision Song Contest - the first heavy metal band ever to do so.More
May 20, 2006 Saturday Night Live spoofs Neil Young's latest album, the very political Living With War, reimagining it as I Do Not Agree With Many Of This Administration's Policies.More
May 15, 2006 Dubstep artist Burial releases his debut album, Burial, the first full-length album released through Kode9's Hyperdub Records. It's an attempt to capture the feeling of 2000s London late at night, and the album cover features an aerial view of South London. The logo, which later becomes Burial's signature, represents a pirate radio signal.More
May 13, 2006 Ryan Vandeberghe announces that the Suicide Machines have broken up after 15 years.
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