1996 in music

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Albums released
3 Top hits
4 Musical theater
5 Musical films
6 Births
7 Deaths
8 Awards

8.1 Grammy Awards
8.2 Country Music Association Awards
8.3 Eurovision Song Contest

Events

January 16 - Jamaican authorities open fire on Jimmy Buffett's seaplane, mistaking it for a drug trafficker's plane. U2 singer Bono was also on the plane, but neither singer was injured.
January 18 - Lisa Marie Presley files for divorce from Michael Jackson.
January 28 - Chris Isaak makes a guest appearance on the television show Friends.
January 29 - Garth Brooks refuses to accept his American Music Award for "Favorite Overall Artist". Brooks says that Hootie and the Blowfish had done more for music that year than he did.
February 4 - Former Milli-Vanilli member Rob Pilatus is hospitalized when a man hits him over the head with a baseball bat in Hollywood, California. Pilatus was attempting to steal the man's car.
February 14 - The Artist Formerly Known As Prince marries backup singer Mayte Garcia
February 20 - Snoop Doggy Dogg and his bodyguard are acquitted of first degree murder. The jury deadlocks on voluntary manslaughter charges and a mistrial is declared.
March 13 - Ramones fans riot in Buenos Aires, Argentina after waiting all night for concert tickets only to find out that the show had been sold out.
March 18 - The Sex Pistols announce that they are reuniting for a 20th anniversary tour.
March 28 - Phil Collins announces that he is leaving Genesis to focus on his solo career.
April 3 - M.C. Hammer files for bankruptcy.
April 4 - The Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia's widow, Deborah, scatter part of Garcia's ashes in the Ganges River in India.
April 15 - The remaining part of Jerry Garcia's ashes are scattered near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.
April 24 - This Train, Rick Elias, Jimmy A, Phil Keaggy, Carolyn Arends, Third Day & Ashley Cleveland perform a tribute concert for Rich Mullins at Nashville's Cafe Milano. Speakers included Reunion Records executive Terry Hemmings, record producer Reed Arvin, disc jockey Jon Rivers, & author Brennan Manning.
May 8 - In Los Angeles, California, a judge rules against Tommy Lee and wife actress Pamela Anderson Lee in their attempt to keep Penthouse magazine from publishing still photos taken from an X-rated home movie which was stolen from their home.
June - The Offspring records Ixnay On The Hombre, which will be a blockbuster album on February 4, 1997.
July - The Smashing Pumpkins drummer, Jimmy Chaimberland, is arrested for possession of a controlled substance. The remaining members of the Smashing Pumpkins fire Chaimberland because they said his "insidious battle with drugs and alcohol" had nearly ruined everything for the band.
September 12 - Controversy follows The Eagles when the band dedicates "Peaceful Easy Feeling" to Saddam Hussein at a Democratic Party fundraiser held in Los Angeles.
Sheryl Crow's self titled album is banned from Wal-Mart stores because of the lyric "Watch out sister, watch out brother/watch our children while they kill each other/with a gun they bought at Wal-Mart Discount Stores".
Dashboard Confessional forms
Linkin Park forms
Orgy's forms
Coal Chamber's career begins
Jay-Z's musical career begins
Poison reunites
Singer Tori Amos is sued when a man crashes his car after being distracted by a billboard advertising her album; the billboard featured a photo of Amos breastfeeding a piglet.
Amos's single "Caught a Lite Sneeze" becomes the first song offered as a free digital download by a major record label.

Albums released

Boys for Pele - Tori Amos
1977 - Ash
The Gray Race - Bad Religion
Odelay - Beck
The Beatles Anthology, volume 2 - The Beatles
Three Snakes & One Charm - The Black Crowes
The Great Escape - Blur
Dance Into the Light - Phil Collins
Tha Doggfather - Snoop Dogg
Death Threatz - MC Eith
Face to Face - Face To Face
Cat's Clause - The Germs
Afterlife - The Godfathers
Jerky Boys 3 - Jerky Boys
Life Is Peachy - Korn
High/Low - Nada Surf
Curb - Nickelback
Hesher - Nickelback
Beacon Street Collection - No Doubt
Inxay on the Hombre - The Offspring
Off Parole - Rappin 4-Tay
One Hot Minute - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Da Villain in Black - MC Ren
Test For Echo - Rush
One Chord to Another - Sloan
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - The Smashing Pumpkins
White Light, White Heat, White Trash - Social Distortion
Emperor Tomato Ketchup - Stereolab
Sublime - Sublime
311 - 311
�nima - Tool
All Eyez on Me - 2Pac
Supercharged Straight to Hell - The Turbo AC's
Running on Ice - Vertical Horizon
Bad Hair Day - Weird Al Yankovic

Top hits

"Change the World" - Eric Clapton, written by Wayne Kirkpatrick, Gordon Kennedy and Tommy Sims, won a Grammy award for song of the year in 1997
"Ironic" - Alanis Morissette
"Free As A Bird" - The Beatles
"Wonderwall" - Oasis
"California Love" - 2Pac
"How Do U Want It" - 2Pac
"6th Avenue Heartache" - The Wallflowers
"If It Makes You Happy" - Sheryl Crow
"Aeroplane" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Give Me One Reason" - Tracy Chapman
"Macarena" - Los Del Rio
"Wash Away" - Vertical Horizon
"All Mixed Up" - 311
"Down" - 311
"Can't Get You Off My Mind" - Lenny Kravitz
"I Want To Come Over" - Melissa Etheridge
"Professional Widow (Star Trunk Funkin' Mix)" - Tori Amos

Musical theater

Chicago Broadway revival
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Broadway revival
I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change off-Broadway production
The King and I Broadway revival
Once upon a Mattress Broadway revival
Rent Broadway production (originally off-Broadway}
State Fair Broadway production

Musical films

Everyone Says I Love You
Evita
The Hunchback of Notre Dame animated feature
James and the Giant Peach animated feature

Births

Deaths

February 20 - Toru Takemitsu, composer
March 4 - Minnie Pearl (84)
March 15 - Olga Rudge (101), violinist
March 22 - Don Murray, The Turtles
April 18 - Bernard Edwards, Chic, pneumonia
June 15 - Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer
July 17 - Marcel Dadi 45, French country and western guitarist died in the crash of TWA flight 800
July 29 - Jason Thirsk, bass member of Pennywise
August 13 - David Tudor, pianist and composer
September 13 - Tupac Shakur, rapper, poet, actor
November 30 - Tiny Tim, musician

Awards

The following artists are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: David Bowie, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Jefferson Airplane, Little Willie John, Pink Floyd, The Shirelles and The Velvet Underground