Events in 2006
- Arthur Lee, singer and guitarist of the psychedelic rock group Love, died in Memphis at the age of 61 after battling acute myeloid leukemia.
- John Locke, keyboardist with Spirit and Nazareth, died in Ojai, California, at the age of 62 from cancer.
- Shakira and Wyclef Jean began a four-week run at No. 1 on the UK singles chart with “Hips Don't Lie.” The song reached No. 1 in 18 countries.
- Janet Jackson appeared on the cover of Vibe magazine wearing only bikini bottoms and a necklace made of large shells. She had lost a significant amount of weight shortly beforehand.
- Travis Barker of Blink-182 filed for divorce from his former beauty queen wife, Shanna Moakler.
- Christina Aguilera released her first album after a four-year break, “Back To Basics”. The album reached No. 1 on the chart and was her first album to top the chart since her 1999 debut.
- American R&B singer Barbara George, who reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)” in 1961, died at the age of 63 in Chauvin, Louisiana, from a lung infection related to liver disease and hepatitis C. Although two more of her songs reached the Hot 100 the following year, she never repeated the success of her first hit and largely withdrew from the music industry in the early 1980s.
- American entertainer and talk-show host Mike Douglas died suddenly in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He hosted The Mike Douglas Show from 1965 to 1981 and had the 1966 hit “The Men In My Little Girl's Life,” which reached No. 6 on the Billboard chart.
- She reached No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with her debut solo album “LeToya.”
- She released her debut album Memories Are Made of This, featuring songs associated with her father Dean Martin as well as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. The album was produced by her husband John Griffeth and spent 40 weeks in the iTunes Top 10 during 2006 and 2007.
- Jerry Schilling published the book Me and a Guy Named Elvis: My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley about his lifelong friendship with Elvis Presley.
- American filmmaker Adam Muskiewicz launched the website elviswanted.com as part of a documentary investigating the myth that Elvis Presley is still alive, offering a $3 million reward to anyone who could find Elvis alive. The film was scheduled for release in August 2007 to mark the 30th anniversary of Presley's death.
- Justin Hawkins, singer with The Darkness, entered the Priory rehabilitation clinic because of exhaustion after three years of nonstop work.
- Pete Doherty, frontman of Babyshambles, appeared before Thames Magistrates' Court in London on seven charges of drug possession.
- Drake made his professional debut with a thirty-minute performance at Kool Haus in Toronto, opening for Ice Cube. He earned $100 for it.
- The 22nd edition of the US Now! series, “Now That’s What I Call Music! 7”, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The compilation album was released by Sony BMG and contained songs by various artists, including Rihanna, Sean Paul, Nickelback, Keith Urban and Beyoncé.
- The Rolling Stones played the first of two concerts at Twickenham Stadium as part of the A Bigger Bang tour. Feeder and The Charlatans also performed.
- German prosecutors announced that they had decided not to open an investigation into Madonna after she performed a controversial mock crucifixion scene during a concert on August 20.
- A man surfing the internet in America helped catch three men who broke into a shop in Liverpool, England. He was watching a live internet feed from Mathew Street and the nearby Beatles festival when he saw men smashing the shop window and climbing inside. He called Merseyside Police, who arrested the offenders.
- Bruce Gary, American musician, producer, and drummer for The Knack, died at the age of 55 in Tarzana, California, from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He was best known as the drummer of The Knack on their multimillion-selling hit “My Sharona”. He was also a sought-after session musician and recorded or performed with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, Rod Stewart, and Jack Bruce.
- Canadian composer John Weinzweig died at the age of 93.
- Representatives for Linda Ronstadt announced the cancellation of all her concerts through the end of the year while she recovered from planned surgery. They stated that it was not an emergency procedure.
- Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco and The Subways performed on the first day of the three-day Reading Festival in Leeds and Reading, England.
- Christina Aguilera scored her first No. 1 album in the UK with her fifth studio album “Back to Basics”.
- Taylor Hicks's song “Do I Make You Proud?” dropped out of the Billboard Hot 100 after only eight weeks, setting a new record as the shortest chart run for a song that had reached No. 1. By comparison, Fergie's “London Bridge” was No. 1 in 2006 and had the second-shortest chart run, at 21 weeks.
- The television special “Barry Manilow: Music and Passion” won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.
- The Rolling Stones performed at Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield, England, as part of their “A Bigger Bang” world tour. The legendary rock band played on a notoriously rainy night, but the wet weather did not reduce the energy of the crowd on the stadium floor.
- Barry Manilow underwent surgery to repair torn cartilage in both hips and faced a six- to eight-week recovery. He spent the first few days using a wheelchair before getting back on his feet and making a full return to the stage later that October.
- KISS bassist Gene Simmons took his stage name from rockabilly singer Jumpin' Gene Simmons, who died at the age of 69 after a long illness.
- Canadian-American actor and occasional singer Glenn Ford died at the age of 90.
- Jumpin' Gene Simmons, American rockabilly singer and songwriter, died after a long illness at the age of 69. He became known especially for his version of the song "Haunted House", which reached No. 11 in the US in 1964. KISS bassist Gene Simmons, born Chaim Witz, chose his stage name in his honor.
- The album "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" was voted by the British public as the best album ever to reach No. 1 in a poll held to mark the 50th anniversary of the UK album chart. The Beatles also had "Revolver" at No. 6, "Abbey Road" at No. 8, and "The Beatles" ("White Album") at No. 10 among the top ten.
- The Times published an article about rock stars' demands while on tour. Ozzy Osbourne required a doctor specializing in the eyes, ears, nose and throat at every venue. The Beach Boys required a licensed masseur, Meat Loaf a mask and a small oxygen tank, David Bowie a dressing-room temperature between 14 and 18°C, Paul McCartney a large arrangement of Casablanca white lilies, and Mick Jagger a reading device containing the lyrics to all the songs that also reminded him of the name of the city where they were performing.
- Producer Phil Spector, 65, who was awaiting trial for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson, married his fourth wife, 26-year-old Rachelle Marie Short. The small ceremony took place in the entrance hall of his mansion in Alhambra, California, exactly where Clarkson had been fatally shot three years earlier. The couple remained together for just over two and a half years before Spector was convicted of murder and sentenced to 19 years to life. In 2016, he filed for divorce from prison, and the marriage was officially dissolved in 2018. Spector died on January 16, 2021, at the age of 81.
- Ronald Isley, frontman of The Isley Brothers, was sentenced to 37 months in prison for tax evasion against the federal government. The 65-year-old singer was found guilty on five counts of tax evasion and one count of willfully failing to file a tax return concerning income worth millions of dollars.
- Ronald Isley, lead singer of The Isley Brothers, was sentenced to three years in prison in the US for several counts of tax fraud. The 64-year-old singer was also ordered to pay the Internal Revenue Service more than $3.1 million. The court said he had collected royalties belonging to his brother O'Kelly, who died in 1996, and had also spent millions of dollars in undeclared performance income on a yacht and two houses.
- With their fourth studio album “Eyes Open”, Snow Patrol reached number one on the UK album chart. With more than 1.5 million copies sold, it was, according to the source, the best-selling album of the year in the United Kingdom.
- Justin Timberlake and Timbaland reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart with “SexyBack”. It was Timberlake’s first UK single to top the chart, and the recording won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording in 2007.
- Badfinger drummer Mike Gibbins died in his sleep at his home in Florida at the age of 56. Badfinger had the 1970 single “Come and Get It,” which reached number four in the UK and number seven in the US and was written by Paul McCartney. Gibbins had also been a member of The Iveys in the 1960s.
- Steve Irwin was remembered on this date through cultural tributes, including musical memorial dedications.
- Arctic Monkeys won the Mercury Prize for their album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, which became the fastest-selling debut album in British chart history upon its release.
- Elvis Presley's two-disc CD and DVD Essential was released in Australia.
- Justin Timberlake released the album FutureSex/LoveSounds.
- A Florida man named Paul van Valkenburgh died of lung cancer. His obituary in a local newspaper was picked up by the Associated Press, which mistakenly used the name of the real Paul Vance, who was alive and living in Coral Springs, Florida. When he learned about his supposed death from television, he contacted local media and proved he was alive by showing, among other things, ASCAP royalty checks from his biggest hit, "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini".
- Victor Willis, singer of The Village People who performed in a police officer costume, received a three-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to drug offenses related to a March 2006 incident in which police found cocaine and drug paraphernalia in his car. The suspended sentence spared him several years in prison on the condition that he undergo long-term addiction treatment. Willis helped create some of the group's biggest hits, including "Y.M.C.A." and "In The Navy".
- George Michael was arrested in London for possession of drugs.
- Katie Melua entered the Guinness Book of Records with a concert performed 303 meters below sea level on the Norwegian Statoil Troll A platform in the North Sea. Before the performance, she and her band underwent extensive medical examinations and survival training in Norway.
- Snoop Dogg guest-starred in an episode of the Showtime series Weeds, where he helped Mary-Louise Parker get her marijuana-growing business off the ground with a large order and an improvised rap on the subject.
- British alternative rock group Muse and Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke were the major winners at the fifth annual BT Digital Music Awards in London. Each received two awards.
- The opening concert of the Barbra Streisand tour at Philadelphia's Wachovia Center set a record for the highest one-day gross in the arena's ten-year history: $5,265,600 from an attendance of 16,510.
- Former R. Kelly employee Henry Vaughn filed a lawsuit accusing the singer of assault, unlawful restraint, and breach of contract concerning royalties. He also claimed that Kelly and his associates dragged him into the basement of his home and repeatedly beat him.
- Bob Marley was posthumously honored with a commemorative plaque at his former home at 34 Ridgmount Gardens in London's Camden. The event was part of Black History Month.
- Jeffrey Borer, owner of XtraJet, which sold Michael Jackson his private Gulfstream jet, was sentenced for secretly filming Michael Jackson on the aircraft. He had two video cameras installed in the plane in an attempt to obtain material with which Jackson could be blackmailed; according to sources, he was sentenced to six months of house arrest and fined $10,000.
- John Greek, an outstanding guitarist and trumpeter with The Wailers, died.
- EMI Virgin India announced the withdrawal of all copies of Slayer's latest album Christ Illusion after the Christian organization Catholic Secular Forum from Mumbai protested against it.
- The Four Tops sang the U.S. national anthem at Comerica Park before Game 3 of the American League Division Series between the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees. In honor of the local sports teams, they wore Detroit Tigers, Lions, Pistons and Red Wings jerseys. The Detroit Tigers subsequently defeated the New York Yankees 6–0.
- Babyshambles postponed the remaining five concerts of their UK tour to give singer Pete Doherty more time to recover from drug addiction treatment.
- The Killers reached No. 1 on the UK album chart with their second studio album, “Sam's Town,” beginning a three-week run at the top. In the US, the album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than five million copies worldwide.
- The Bad Brains kicked off a three-night residency at CBGB's during the legendary venue's final week of operation. Celebrities spotted in the audience included Ric Ocasek, Paulina Porizkova, Richard Hell and Elijah Wood.
- During a concert at Madison Square Garden, Barbra Streisand had a heated confrontation with a dissatisfied audience member who objected to her political remarks about President George W. Bush.
- Twenty-one-year-old Lily Allen, who had already become famous in her native England, performed in the United States for the first time, giving a concert at Hiro Ballroom in New York City.
- The parole board informed Mark David Chapman that he would have to spend at least another two years at Attica Correctional Facility for the murder of John Lennon. Although the board acknowledged his satisfactory behavior in prison, it concluded that, given the extraordinary violence of his crime, his release would not be in the public interest.
- Sting released the album Songs from the Labyrinth, featuring 16th-century lute songs.
- Justin Hawkins, singer for the British band The Darkness, announced that he was leaving the group to continue treatment for drug addiction. The band went on hiatus until Hawkins returned in 2011.
- Madonna adopted a one-year-old boy, David Banda, from Malawi. His father, Yohane Banda, told reporters that he believed the boy would do well in the United States. The child's mother had died one week after his birth.