1986 in music

See also:

Deaths

• January 4 - Phil Lynott, rock musician
• January 8 - Pierre Fournier, cellist
• February 14 - Edmund Rubbra, composer
• March 4 - Richard Manuel, The Band, suicide
• March 4 - Howard Greenfield, songwriter
• March 11 - Sonny Terry, blues musician
• March 21 - Raymond Burke, jazz clarinetist
• March 22 - Mark Dinning, US singer
• March 30 - James Cagney, US actor, singer and dancer
• March 31 - O'Kelly Isley, the Isley Brothers
• April 3 - Peter Pears, opera singer and partner of Benjamin Britten
• June 3 - Anna Neagle, actress and singer
• June 13 - Benny Goodman, bandleader
• June 16 - Maurice Duruflé, composer
• June 17 - Kate Smith, singer
• July 3 - Rudy Vallee
• September 27 - Cliff Burton, Metallica, tour bus accident
• September 28 - Robert Helpmann, dancer
• October 16 - Arthur Grumiaux, violinist
• November 1 - Sippie Wallace, blues singer
• November 3 - Eddie Davis, saxophonist
• November 18 - Lajos Bardos, composer and conductor
• November 22 - Scatman Crothers, singer, dancer and musician