April 11, 2006 For the 25-year anniversary reissue of David Byrne and Brian Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts album, the multi-tracks for two songs - "A Secret Life" and "Help Me Somebody" - are made available for download, for fans to remix and upload to the website.
April 2, 2006 Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" makes history by becoming the UK's first-ever #1 single to top the chart solely on download sales.More
March 25, 2006 Country musician Buck Owens dies of a heart attack at age 76, hours after giving his final performance at the Crystal Palace music hall in Bakersfield, California.
March 24, 2006 Hannah Montana, starring Miley Cyrus as a middle school student who is secretly a pop star, debuts on Disney Channel. Cyrus, 13 years old and best known as the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, becomes a pop star in real life when the show becomes a huge hit and spawns a #1 soundtrack.More
March 22, 2006 Cuban singer Pío Leyva (of Buena Vista Social Club) dies of a heart attack at age 88.
March 21, 2006 Six years after filing suit, the family of African musician Solomon Linda, who wrote and recorded the original version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," reach an agreement with the song's publisher, giving them some royalties. Linda, who died in 1962, signed away rights to the song in 1952.
March 20, 2006 The song "Thank You For Being A Friend" is played at Leeds Crown Court when John Humble pleads guilty to perpetrating the Wearside Jack hoax (he pretended to be the Yorkshire Ripper serial killer).
March 15, 2006 Remnants of Fats Domino's two pianos are discovered and saved by the Louisiana State Museum after attempting to salvage his Ninth Ward home after Hurricane Katrina.More
March 13, 2006 Black Sabbath, Blondie, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Miles Davis and The Sex Pistols are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The Sex Pistols refuse to attend the ceremony and turn down the induction.More
March 13, 2006 Isaac Hayes quits the TV series South Park after an episode airs mocking his religion, Scientology.More
March 11, 2006 The High School Musical soundtrack reaches #1 on the US albums chart, the first TV soundtrack album to top the tally since the Miami Vice soundtrack, which was #1 for eight weeks in 1985 and another three in 1986. Nine songs from the album make the Hot 100, led by "Breaking Free," sung by Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, which reaches #4.
March 11, 2006 "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt goes to #1 in America. Blunt later explains that the song is "about a guy who's high as a f--king kite on drugs in the subway stalking someone else's girlfriend."
March 5, 2006 "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from the movie Hustle & Flow wins an Oscar for Best Song, just the second rap song to get the award, after "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. Three 6 Mafia become the first rappers to perform at the ceremony.More
February 18, 2006 A week before Carnival, the Rolling Stones play a free concert to an estimated 1.5 million people at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.More
February 12, 2006 Beyoncé becomes the first woman to star in a #1 movie while having a #1 hit at the same time when The Pink Panther tops the box office as "Check On It" (used in the end credits) remains at the top of the chart. She's the third person to do it, following Prince with Purple Rain and "When Doves Cry," and Eminem with 8 Mile and "Lose Yourself."
February 5, 2006 A 29-year-old man is shot to death near a video shoot for rapper Busta Rhymes in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, New York. The man worked as a bodyguard at Kiss the Cactus Productions, where the video for Rhymes's "Touch It" was being filmed.
January 20, 2006 The TV movie High School Musical premieres on the Disney Channel, creating a teen and tween sensation and the biggest album of 2006.More
January 1, 2006 Flavor Flav's reality show, Flavor of Love, premieres on VH1. The series lasts for three seasons. Flav is one of the founding members of the pioneering rap group Public Enemy.
January 1, 2006 Guitarist/songwriter Bryan Harvey (of House of Freaks) is murdered in his home along with his wife and two young daughters. The crime is part of the Richmond spree murders, a series of deadly home invasions in Virginia perpetrated by Ricky Javon Gray and his nephew Ray Joseph Dandridge over the course of a week.
December 28, 2005 Barry Cowsill (of The Cowsills) is found under a wharf in the Mississippi River. Cowsill, living in New Orleans, survived Hurricane Katrina but drowned in the flooding following the storm.
December 21, 2005 Elton John and his partner David Furnish take part in a civil ceremony (gay marriage is not legal in England) to make their union official. Guests at the ceremony, which takes place in Windsor, England, include George Michael, Sharon Stone, and Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. Nine years later, with gay marriage legal, they get married.
December 18, 2005 After airing on Saturday Night Live, the Digital Short "Lazy Sunday," about two gangsta wannabes who plan a trip to see The Chronicles of Narnia movie, appears on YouTube. It quickly goes viral, becoming the first TV segment to do so on YouTube, which launched 10 months earlier.More
December 3, 2005 Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age marries Brody Dalle of The Distillers. They have three children before splitting up in 2019; much of the 2023 QOTSA album In Times New Roman... deals with their messy divorce.
November 26, 2005 Chris Brown, 16, dashes to #1 with his first single, "Run It!" He quickly becomes a superstar with gaudy sales numbers despite persistent legal problems.
November 25, 2005 After a nine-year hiatus, Take That announce they're getting back together and going on tour without Robbie Williams.More
November 22, 2005 A collection of poems written by Bob Dylan in 1959 and 1960 when he was a student at the University of Minnesota sells for $78,000 at auction. The poems are the first known time he used the name Bob Dylan - he was born Robert Zimmerman.
November 19, 2005 "Save Me" by Shinedown, a song about helping someone in need, goes to #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart, where it stays for 12 weeks. It's the band's first #1 on that chart, but they soon become regulars to the top spot, with a run of hits that includes "Second Chance," "Diamond Eyes" and "Cut The Cord."
November 18, 2005 The movie Walk The Line, based on the life of Johnny Cash and starring Joaquin Phoenix as the singer, opens in US theaters.More
November 16, 2005 Pink Floyd, The Kinks and Eurythmics are among the honorees inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. The second annual show, which takes place in a ceremony at London's Alexandra Palace, features some momentous reunions, including the gathering of the original Kinks and a performance by the classic line-up of Black Sabbath, featuring Ozzy Osbourne.
November 16, 2005 I Walk the Line: A Night for Johnny Cash airs on CBS, with U2, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Lee Lewis and several others paying tribute to the singer.
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