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.

April 3, 2014 

Arthur Smith, one of postwar country music’s finest guitar pickers, dies at age 93 of natural causes. His 1949 instrumental “Guitar Boogie” was one of the first to showcase the electric guitar and as such had a major influence on the development of rockabilly and rock in general.

April 4, 1968 

US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. is killed after being shot on a Memphis motel balcony. King’s life inspires a number of songs, including U2’s “Pride (In The Name Of Love).”

April 5, 2002 

Alice In Chains frontman Layne Staley dies after overdosing on heroin and cocaine. The 34-year-old singer had fallen into addiction and lost most contact with the outside world. His body isn’t discovered until two weeks later, when police enter his apartment on April 19 after friends and associates report him missing.

1994

Kurt Cobain of Nirvana kills himself with a shotgun at age 27. His body isn’t discovered until three days later when an electrician enters to install an alarm.

April 6, 1974 

ABBA became European stars overnight when their composition “Waterloo” won the annual Eurovision Song Contest.

2016 

On his 79th birthday, Merle Haggard dies at his ranch in Northern California. Haggard placed 71 songs in the Top 10 of the Country chart during his lifetime.

April 7, 2008 

Bob Dylan gets an honorary Pulitzer Prize for his “profound impact on popular music and American culture.” He’s the first rock musician to win the award.

April 8, 1994 

Kurt Cobain’s body is found in his Seattle home by an electrician sent to install a burglar alarm. He is believed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound three days earlier. The Nirvana song “Come As You Are” takes on new meaning with the line, “I swear that I don’t have a gun.”

2016 

Steve Miller, notoriously averse to awards ceremonies, goes on a backstage rant when he is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He says the Hall is like “a private boys club,” and lets loose on the organisers. “It’s a bunch of jackasses and jerks and f–king gangsters and crooks.”

April 9, 1977 

ABBA goes to #1 on the US singles chart with “Dancing Queen,” the group’s seventh US Top 40 hit and first #1. The song is also a #1 in the UK and 12 other countries.