More About Music History On This Day

6 Dec 1986
Europe were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'The Final Countdown'. They became only the second Swedish act to score a UK No.1. The song reached No.1 in 25 countries and the song's lyrics were inspired by David Bowie's song 'Space Oddity'

6 Dec 1988
American singer songwriter Roy Orbison died of a heart attack aged 52. Scored the 1964 UK & US No.1 single 'Pretty Woman', plus over 20 US & 30 UK Top 40 singles including ‘Only the Lonely’ and ‘Crying’. Formed his first band The Wink Westerners in 1949, was a member of The Traveling Wilburys (known as Lefty Wilbury) with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty and had the 1988 UK No.21 single 'Handle with Care'. Orbison endured a great deal of tragedy in his life. His first wife, Claudette died in a motorcycle accident in 1966 and two of his three sons, died in a house fire.

6 Dec 1994
Tower Records released The Beatles 'Live At The BBC', a 69 track, double album of tunes recorded for BBC shows such as Top Gear, Easy Beat, Saturday Club and Pop Go The Beatles. The LP will rise straight to the top of the UK chart, selling over 600,000 copies by the end of the year and 2,000,000 in the US four weeks later.

6 Dec 2003
Elvis Costello married jazz artist Diana Krall in a ceremony at Elton John's UK mansion. About 150 guests, including Paul McCartney attended the wedding. It was Costello's third marriage.

6 Dec 2008
Beyonce went to No.1 on the US album chart with ‘I Am’ Sasha Fierce’, the singers third studio album. It debuted at No.1, making Knowles the third female artist this decade after Britney Spears and Alicia Keys to have her first three albums debut in the top spot.

6 Dec 2011
American singer and songwriter Dobie Gray died from complications of cancer surgery in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 71. His hit records included 'The 'In' Crowd' in 1965 and 'Drift Away', which was one of the biggest hits of 1973, and went on to sell over one million copies.

6 Dec 2013
The electric guitar played by Bob Dylan at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival was sold at auction in New York for a record $965,000. The Fender Stratocaster had been in the possession of a New Jersey family for 48 years after Dylan left it on a private plane.

6 Dec 2016
It was reported that more money had been spent on vinyl than downloaded albums for the first time. Vinyl sales made the record industry 2.4m, while downloads took in 2.1m, the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) said. It marked a big shift in music consumption. In the same week the previous year, vinyl albums made £1.2m while digital ones made 4.4m.

6 Dec 2018
English singer, songwriter and guitarist Pete Shelley died of a suspected heart attack aged 63. He formed the new wave/punk rock band Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto in 1976, (who latter left to form Magazine). Buzzcocks had the 1978 UK No.12 single 'Ever Fallen In Love, With Someone You Shouldn't've' and was know for the hits ‘Orgasm Addict’, ‘What Do I Get?’and ‘Everybody's Happy Nowadays’. Shelley also had a solo career: his song ‘Homosapien’ charted in the US in 1981.

6 Dec 2019
Robbie Williams become the joint most successful solo act in UK album chart history after scoring his 13th No.1, with The Christmas Present - level with Elvis Presley. The Beatles hold the overall record with 15 UK No.1 albums.

Date & Time

December 6, 2024

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