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Black Buffalo residents stand united in wake of shooting

May 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — The city of Buffalo, New York, is grieving following a mass shooting at a Tops supermarket that left 10 people dead and another three wounded on Saturday.

Resident Myles Carter was just a few blocks from the scene that day, and the sounds of his neighbors crying out in agony over the news has been replaying in his head since the attack.

“It’s a heart-wrenching sound,” Carter told ABC News. “I heard that sound over and over and over again, for a long period of time.”

The attack, which authorities are calling a racially motivated hate crime, left the predominantly Black community shaken, residents say, but they remain strong in their efforts to take care of and protect one another in the face of white supremacy.

“We just need to go ahead and make plans to take care of ourselves because it is clear that these elected officials aren’t going to do it,” said Shaimaa Aakil, a community advocate in Buffalo.

A 180-page document believed to have been written by alleged shooter Payton Gendron describes racist motives behind the shooting, including “replacement theory,” a white supremacist belief that non-whites will eventually replace white people because they have higher birth rates.

In the document, he allegedly said he planned to attack the supermarket because it’s located in a predominantly Black neighborhood. It’s one of the only grocery stores available in the area, residents told ABC News.

In response, people working with community fridges, funds and food drives are stepping up to ensure that residents are cared for following an attack intended to erase them.

Residents say some non-Black community members are offering to get groceries for their Black neighbors, while some are stepping up as security for places of worship and community centers.

Taking care of each other is something Buffalo residents know how to do well, according to Herbert L. Bellamy Jr., a Buffalo native who lives down the road from Tops.

Bellamy, who also is president of Buffalo Black Achievers, said the neighborhood-grown efforts bring him comfort, knowing the community he knows and loves is taking care of itself.

“We’re a close-knit community, so we’re in touch with everyone,” Bellamy said. “We’ve worked hard to develop that neighborhood. Things like this can be a huge setback for our community, with a food desert and people not being able to shop for food.”

And though the community’s resilience is shining in this moment, others say they are tired of having to be resilient. They say real change needs to come from this moment.

“We shouldn’t be responding to this,” said Carter, who is also a local social justice activist. “We’ve got to fix the problems so that we don’t have to have a community response.”

The attack not only signaled the country’s radical alt-right movement, but also highlighted the way white supremacy has permeated the community’s basic functions, Carter said.

Residents ABC News spoke with say the fact that there are limited places to buy affordable, healthy food in a predominantly Black part of a highly segregated city highlights longstanding issues of race.

“Don’t let them make you believe that this is a one-time issue, an isolated event,” Aakil said. “A lot of elected officials right now are going to imply that this is not a problem that’s bred here, that he is from four hours away. But Buffalo has a really deep problem with segregation.”

The tragedy has spurred a city-wide movement against racism as locals call on leaders and citizens alike to address white supremacy in communities and institutions across the country.

“You feel it even though you’re not here,” Carter said. “If white supremacy can do this in the heart of liberal Buffalo, New York — we got a Black mayor. We have Black people on our common council. We’ve got Black people in our Erie County legislator.”

If it can happen there, he said, “it can happen anywhere in America.”

One killed, five wounded in shooting at California church: Authorities

May 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(LAGUNA WOODS, Calif.) — One person was killed and five were wounded in a shooting at a church in Laguna Woods, California, on Sunday, authorities said.

Four were critically hurt and one person suffered minor injuries from the shooting inside the Geneva Presbyterian Church, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office tweeted. All victims are adults and range in age from 66 to 92 years old, the sheriff’s office said.

A group of churchgoers detained the suspect and hogtied his legs with an extension cord and confiscated two handguns from him before more people could be shot, according to Jeff Hallock, undersheriff at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

“That group of churchgoers displayed what we believed exceptional heroism, heroism and bravery in interfering or intervening to stop the suspect,” Hallock said.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said later Sunday that it had arrested a suspect who was described as an Asian man in his 60s.

The man was taken into custody and two firearms were recovered at the scene, authorities said.

The suspect was identified Monday in Orange County jail records as 68-year-old Las Vegas resident David Chou. He has been charged with one count of murder and five counts of attempted murder and is being held on $1 million bail, jail records show.

Investigators are working to determine whether he has any connections to the church or its congregants.

“The Presbytery of Los Ranchos is deeply saddened by a fatal shooting that occurred at a lunch reception honoring a former pastor of the Taiwanese congregation that nests at Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods,” Tom Cramer, Presbytery head of staff, said in a statement Sunday. “Please keep the leadership of the Taiwanese congregation and Geneva in your prayers as they care for those traumatized by this shooting.”

The suspect opened fire at a lunch banquet at the church following a morning service, Hallock said.

The shooting was reported at about 1:26 p.m. local time, authorities said.

Hallock said a motive and whether the suspect had an intended target is unknown.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI are en route to assist local officials.

There were 30 to 40 people inside the church when the shooting began, officials said.

Buffalo supermarket shooting reflects law enforcement’s fears

May 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — Law enforcement officials say the Buffalo, New York, supermarket shooting has underscored their long-held fear that someone could be radicalized online, have access to guns, take inspiration from prior attacks and then carry out an act of murderous violence against a soft target, like a grocery store.

Ten people — all of whom were Black — were killed in Saturday’s mass shooting in Buffalo in a rampage authorities are calling a “racially-motivated hate crime.”

The 180-page document believed to have been written by the Buffalo suspect, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, includes praise for the 2015 mass shooting at a Charleston, South Carolina, church where nine Black parishioners were gunned down.

Evidence points to the Buffalo shooting being a calculated, racially-motivated execution by a teenager who appeared to have been targeting Black people, according to multiple sources and a review of FBI cases and testimony. The hate-filled document apparently written by Gendron includes the radical notion that white people are being replaced in the U.S.

The teen gunman allegedly wanted a race war and livestreamed the attack in an apparent effort to spur others to kill minorities, sources said.

Law enforcement has had mounting concerns about so-called lone wolf killers — and white supremacists have been chief among them, sources said.

The FBI has warned that this trend has been increasing in violence: the 2015 Charleston church massacre targeting Black parishioners claimed nine lives; the 2018 mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue killed 11 people; and the 2019 mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart, targeting Hispanics, took 23 lives.

According to the FBI, domestic extremists — many of them racially motivated — have killed more people in the U.S. than any other group since 9/11, including internationally-inspired terrorists.

“Over the last several years the U.S. has experienced a sustained level of violence by individuals who self-connect with extremist causes — primarily through the consumption of online content — and who, independent of a terrorist or extremist organization, will go out and engage in mass casualty, violent attacks,” said ABC News contributor John Cohen, a former top official in the Department of Homeland Security.

Cohen noted several conditions that have converged to create this dangerous environment: the polarization of discourse in the U.S. where some people view those who disagree with them as the enemy; public figures mimicking violent extremists’ words; and an online ecosystem “saturated with conspiracy theories and other information” published with “the intention of sowing discord and inspiring violence.”

“Those are the conditions that have all come together to make … the most volatile, complex and dynamic threat environment I’ve experienced in 38 years,” Cohen warned. “It’s those dynamics that have law enforcement very concerned that this is a trend that not only will continue, but get worse.”

There’s also the pandemic factor. A bulletin from Orange County, California, authorities last year highlighted the impressionable nature of young people who’ve been largely isolated during the pandemic and are “radicalized online by racially motivated violent extremist propaganda.”

In Gendron’s document, he claimed he settled on his beliefs through what he found on the internet and that there was little to no influence on his beliefs by people he knew in person. The person Gendron said radicalized him the most was the gunman who attacked two mosques in New Zealand in 2019, killing 51 people.

Gendron has been arraigned on one count of first-degree murder and is due back in court on May 19.

As the investigation continues, Sunday worshippers at predominantly Black churches in New York City can expect to see additional police patrols. The shooting caused police to move resources to Black churches “to provide a visible presence in the event of any copycat but moreover to provide an air of protection and safety who go to the larger houses of worship,” the NYPD said.

The NYPD said there is no known threat to New York and described the shift of resources as a precaution.

ABC News’ Jack Date, Alex Mallin and Quinn Owen contributed to this report.

Arcade Fire’s ‘WE’ earns top-10 ’Billboard’ 200 debut

May 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Arcade Fire‘s new album, WE, has debuted in the top 10 on the Billboard 200.

The sixth studio effort from the Canadian indie rockers lands at number six on the ranking with close to 32,000 equivalent album units, 26,500 of which were traditional album sales. That latter figure makes WE the best-selling album of the week.

Arcade Fire has previously hit number one on the Billboard 200 three times, with 2010’s The Suburbs, 2013’s Reflektor and 2017’s Everything Now. And while WE continues Arcade Fire’s streak of top-10 albums that began with 2007’s Neon Bible, it’s technically the band’s lowest-charting record since their 2004 debut, Funeral, which peaked at number 123.

Arcade Fire will launch a U.S. tour in support of WE in October.

The Who plays first Cincinnati concert since 1979 tragedy; Pete Townshend: “There’s no words that we can say”

May 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

The Who made an emotional return to Cincinnati on Sunday to play their first concert in the city since the band’s infamous December 1979 show at the Riverfront Coliseum, where 11 young people died as fans rushed the venue’s doors before the event.

The British rock legends’ show on Sunday was the first concert ever at Cincinnati’s new TQL Stadium.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Who guitarist Pete Townshend addressed the crowd during the show, saying, “I’ve been trying to think of why to say, what would be cool to say, what would be uncool to say, and really there’s no words that we can say that can mean [as much as] the fact that you guys have come out tonight and supported this event. Thank you so much.”

Townshend then referenced the fact the that The Who planned to donate proceeds from the concert to local charities, noting, “[Y]our money is going to great causes, many of which are related to what happened back here in Cincinnati in 1979, which is probably time for us to both remember and try to forget. … Anyway, it’s so lovely to be here.”

Prior to The Who taking the stage, a prerecorded video of Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder was played, in which Vedder recalled how Townshend and Who singer Roger Daltrey gave him support after nine people were killed during a 2000 PJ concert in Denmark.

During Sunday’s show, photos of the 11 victims of the 1979 tragedy were shown on the video screen while Who touring keyboardist Loren Gold played the intro to “Love, Reign O’er Me.”

Also, 10 students from Finneytown High School, the school that three of the 1979 victims attended, joined the orchestra that accompanied The Who for the show’s final song, “Baba O’Riley.”

President Biden signs law banning sale of crib bumpers, inclined sleepers for babies

May 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Inclined sleepers for babies and crib bumper pads will be banned from being manufactured and sold under legislation signed into law Monday by President Joe Biden.

Biden signed the bill, the Safe Sleep for Babies Act, into law less than two weeks after it was passed by Congress.

The legislation defines inclined sleepers as “those designed for an infant up to one year old and have an inclined sleep surface of greater than 10 degrees.” Crib bumpers are defined by the law as “padded materials inserted around the inside of a crib and intended to prevent the crib occupant from becoming trapped in any part of the crib’s openings.”

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, chairwoman of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which led an investigation on the infant sleep products, said the products now banned have been linked with “hundreds of infant deaths.”

“My Committee’s nearly two-year investigation revealed that deficient safety reviews, unscrupulous marketing practices, and flaws in our nation’s consumer product safety system allowed companies to keep these products on the market,” Maloney said in a statement. “Too many families have suffered an unimaginable and totally avoidable loss. While nothing will bring back their loved ones, with the passage of this law, we can at least ensure that babies will no longer be put at risk by these dangerous products.”

Erika Richter, of Portland, Oregon, said not wanting another parent to experience the loss of a child is what motivated her to speak out after her 2-week-old daughter, Emma, died in 2018 while using a Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play sleeper, a type of inclined sleeper banned under the new law.

It was only after Emma’s death that Richter said she learned about reports of other infant deaths associated with Rock ‘n Play sleepers, which were recalled in 2019 by the Consumer Product and Safety Commission after being linked to over 30 deaths.

“I thought to myself, ‘If I had just known sooner,'” Richter told “Good Morning America” earlier this month, when the bill passed Congress. “I wish that somebody had done what I’m doing and what some of the other mothers are doing more publicly around the time that I had Emma.”

In 2020, Richter filed a lawsuit against Fisher-Price for wrongful death and gross negligence. The case is ongoing in Los Angeles County Superior Court and Richter declined to provide details on her daughter’s cause of death due to the litigation.

In its answer to the lawsuit, Fisher-Price has denied all of the allegations and specifically denied “that because of an act or omission by them, their agents, or independent contractors, Plaintiffs were injured or damaged in any sum, or at all.”

Last June, Richter shared her story publicly for the first time at a congressional hearing that followed up on a report from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The report found Fisher-Price ignored repeated warnings that its Rock ‘n Play sleeper was dangerous before the device was recalled.

The report found more than 50 infant deaths were linked to the sleeper, which puts infants at a 30-degree incline.

The cause of death for some of the babies was asphyxia, or the inability to breathe, due to the child’s position, the report said.

“We trusted a name brand, and we were wrong,” Richter said in her testimony, holding up baby clothes as a reminder of what she has left to remember her daughter.

When Richter first shared her story publicly last June, a spokesperson for Mattel, the parent company of Fisher-Price, told ABC News in a statement there “is nothing more important” to the company than the safety of its products and that its “hearts go out to every family who has suffered a loss.”

“The Rock ‘n Play sleeper was designed and developed following extensive research, medical advice, safety analysis and more than a year of testing and review,” a spokesperson said, adding that independent medical and other expert analyses verified that the sleeper was safe when used in accordance with its instructions and warning. “It met or exceeded all applicable regulatory standards. As recently as 2017, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) proposed to adopt the ASTM voluntary standard for a 30-degree angled inclined sleeper as federal law.”

A Mattel spokesperson confirmed to ABC News Thursday the Rock ’n Play Sleeper is no longer on the market, noting it, “was sold from its introduction in 2009 up until its voluntary recall in April 2019.”

Guidelines from both the CPSC and the American Academy of Pediatrics say caregivers should always place infants to sleep on their backs on a firm, flat surface and should never add “blankets, pillows, padded crib bumpers, or other items to an infant’s sleeping environment.”

In addition, caregivers should not use infant sleep products with inclined seat backs of more than 10 degrees, and should not use infant car seats, bouncers and other inclined products for sleep, according to the guidelines.

Around 3,400 babies in the U.S. die each year while sleeping, in sudden and unexpected deaths, according to the AAP, which issued a statement Wednesday applauding the passage of the Safe Sleep for Babies Act.

“The message from pediatricians has long been clear: the safest sleep environment for babies is a firm, flat, bare surface,” AAP’s president, Dr. Moira Szilagyi, said in a statement. “Despite what the science shows, crib bumpers and inclined sleepers have remained on the market and store shelves, misleading parents into thinking they are safe and leading to dozens of preventable infant deaths.”

Experts say that padded crib bumpers, which are also banned under the new legislation, pose a particular potential danger because babies may turn their faces into the bumper’s padding, raising the risk of suffocation, may become entrapped underneath or around the bumper, or may become entangled in the bumper’s ties, increasing the risk of strangulation.

Even when federal crib standards changed in 2011, mandating a smaller distance between crib slats so babies would not get their heads stuck between them, crib bumpers — which arguably had lessened that risk — became unnecessary, but they remained on the market, despite the safety risk, according to Dr. Ben Hoffman, a professor of pediatrics at Oregon Health & Science University and chairman of the AAP’s Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention.

“There is an assumption that [products] are safe until they are proven dangerous, as opposed to what I think the public believes, which is if something is sold, it is safe,” Hoffman told ABC News last year.

Richter said she too has learned from her advocacy work since Emma’s death that parents need to be cautious consumers when it comes to the products they use with their kids.

“I have learned that we have a long way to go when it comes to consumer protections, and that legacy brands do not equal trust,” she said. “People die because they make assumptions that the brands themselves are doing their due diligence, and you cannot put that type of control in the hands of a profit maker or profit owner.”

Richter said she plans to continue to push for more consumer controls, including calling on Congress to repeal a provision, 6B, in the Consumer Product Safety Act that she claims allows companies to “self-regulate” when it comes to product safety.

Richter said she also plans to keep speaking out to raise awareness and make sure banned infant sleep products don’t end up in the hands of other mothers.

“I’m still a mom. I’m still Emma’s mom. I still have that responsibility, and I still think like a mom and I still want to protect other moms and other children,” she said. “That is so important to me.”

Buffalo suspect had plans to continue his killing rampage: Commissioner

May 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old who allegedly gunned down 10 people — all of whom were Black — at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, would have continued his rampage had he not been stopped, Buffalo Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told ABC News.

“We have uncovered information that if he escaped the [Tops] supermarket, he had plans to continue his attack,” Gramaglia said. “He had plans to continue driving down Jefferson Ave. to shoot more Black people … possibly go to another store [or] location.”

Authorities are calling Saturday’s massacre a “racially motivated hate crime.”

“This was well-planned … by a sick person,” Gramaglia said.

Evidence points to Gendron self-radicalizing when the pandemic began, spending inordinate amounts of time engrossing himself on hate posts on social media, according to a senior law enforcement source briefed on the case.

Law enforcement assessed that in May 2020, the teen watched a 17-minute video of the gunman who attacked two mosques in New Zealand in 2019, killing 51 people.

In recent months and weeks, some of the items Gendron posted on social media became increasingly violent in tone, a senior law enforcement source said.

FBI Director Christopher Wray called the shooting a “hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism” on a Monday call with state and local partners, according to a source familiar with the phone call.

“The FBI is committed to thoroughly and aggressively investigating Saturday’s attack,” Wray said, according to a source familiar with the call. “Racially motivated violence will not be tolerated in this country.”

Gendron underwent a mental health evaluation after he expressed a desire last June to carry out a murder-suicide. But he was still able to legally buy the semiautomatic rifle police said was used in the attack because no criminal charges resulted from his encounter with New York State Police.

Gramaglia told ABC News the nature of Gendron’s threat last June was “generalized” and included nothing specific.

Officers responded to the shooting scene within one minute and when they approached the suspect, the teen put his assault rifle to his neck, according to the commissioner.

The commissioner praised the responding officers who he said deescalated the situation and convinced the gunman to drop his weapon, saving countless lives.

Multiple high-capacity magazines were recovered on Gendron and in his car, the commissioner said. While he declined to say what evidence pointed to additional shooting plans, the commissioner said investigators have been going through his phone and other electronics.

The teen is from Conklin, New York, which is 200 miles east of Buffalo.

Police determined Gendron arrived in Buffalo on Friday via license plate reader and other evidence, the commissioner said. Police are still working to determine where he stayed overnight before Saturday’s attack.

Shonnell Harris Teague, an operations manager at Tops, said she saw Gendron sitting on a bench outside of the store on Friday afternoon. She said he was there for several hours with a camper bag on his back, dressed in the same camouflage outfit he wore Saturday.

She said Gendron entered the store Friday evening, and appeared as if he was bothering customers. Teague asked him to leave and he did so without an argument.

The next time Teague saw him was on Saturday as a mass shooting unfolded at her store. She escaped out of the back when she saw Gendron.

“I see him with his gear on and his gun and how it was all strapped on. … I seen all the other bodies on the ground. … It was just a nightmare,” she said.

Gendron has been arraigned on one count of first-degree murder and is due back in court on May 19.

Meanwhile, a Buffalo man, Joseph Chowaniec, has been charged with making terroristic threats after he allegedly referenced the supermarket shooting during threatening phone calls to a pizzeria and a brewery on Sunday, the Erie County District Attorney’s Office said.

“This crime will not be tolerated — especially as we are actively investigating the Jefferson Avenue shooting as a domestic terrorism incident,” Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said in a statement.

Chowaniec, 52, was arraigned on Monday and is set to return to court on May 20.

ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Luke Barr and Miles Cohen contributed to this report.

‘Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones’ turns 20

May 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

The second of the Star Wars prequels, Attack of the Clones, turns 20 Monday.

The film follows the now 20-year-old Anakin Skywalker, played by Hayden Christensen, and his master, Ewan McGregor‘s Obi-Wan Kenobi, trying to unravel a plot to assassinate Natalie Portman‘s Queen Padmé Amidala.

In the meantime, Ian McDiarmid‘s Chancellor Palpatine continues to pull the strings behind the scenes as Darth Sidious, which will eventually lead to the Clone Wars, and his ascendancy to Emperor.

The second film in the prequel series had some surprises for fans. It revealed that Clone troopers — the forebears of the Empire’s Stormtroopers — were duplicates based on the genetic template of Temuera Morrison‘s Jango Fett, a bounty hunter in chromed-out Mandalorian armor who was also the father of Boba Fett.

Attack of the Clones often gets dragged for its coverage of proceedings in the Galactic Senate, as Palpatine makes his machinations. However, the film ends with a breathtaking battle scene on the planet Geonosis, where an army of Jedi faces off with a legion of battle droids, only to be rescued by the clone army led by Yoda. There’s also a face-off pitting Anakin and Obi-Wan against Christopher Lee‘s Count Dooku, with the two Jedi rescued by Yoda himself, who for the first time shows off his Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-like skills with a lightsaber.

The film also ends with the secret wedding between Padmé and Anakin, which eventually leads to her pregnancy with Luke and Leia.

Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones made more than $653 million worldwide, leading to the prequel saga’s conclusion, 2005’s Episode III — Revenge of the Sith.

The Chainsmokers unveil So Far So Good tour

May 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

After releasing their fourth studio album on Friday, The Chainsmokers are hitting the road in support of So Far So Good — and it starts in a few days.

The group teased their upcoming trek on Twitter by simply asking fans, “Who’s coming?”

Beginning May 21, the Grammy-winning duo will kick off the So Far So Good tour with a pitstop in Baltimore, Maryland, as part of its Indiefest music event. The Chainsmokers will also perform in Chicago’s Pride in the Park festival on June 25, and a series of other music festivals set around the U.S. and Canada over the summer.

Other pit stops include New Jersey’s Atlantic City, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Nashville, Brooklyn, Tampa, Toronto, Montreal and other major cities. The “iPad” singers will also head across the pond on several occasions, with concerts set in Poland, Greece, Denmark, Italy and major European cities.

The tour will keep The Chainsmokers busy until the end of the year, with a final concert set on December 27 in the Aspen, Colorado, Belly Up music venue.

Fans with access to the Spotify Fan First presale will be able to get their hands on tickets first starting this Wednesday at 10 a.m., but there will be other presale opportunities that day on The Chainsmokers’ official website.

General ticket sales begin Thursday at 10 a.m. local time.

The So Far So Good tour marks the EDM duo’s first major trek since they wrapped their 2019 jaunt in support of their third studio album, World War Joy.

Expanded 40th anniversary reissue of Michael Jackson’s landmark album ‘Thriller’ due in November

May 16, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Michael Jackson‘s Thriller, the best-selling album of all time worldwide, marks its 40th anniversary this November 30, and in celebration of the milestone, an expanded version of the classic record will be released on November 18.

Michael Jackson Thriller 40 will be available as a two-CD set and via digital formats, and will feature the original Thriller album along with a bonus disc of previously unreleased tracks that Jackson worked on during the 1982 album’s sessions.

In addition, Walmart and Target will be releasing exclusive vinyl reissues of the original Thriller album with an alternate 40th anniversary cover. The Target reissue also will come with a commemorative Thriller 40 vinyl slipmat.

Meanwhile, the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab company will release high-quality audiophile versions of Thriller on November 18 as a single-LP vinyl disc and on the hybrid SACD format.

Thriller has sold over 70 million copies worldwide, and has been certified 34-times Platinum by the RIAA, making it the second-best-selling album ever in the U.S., after the Eagles‘ 38-times-Platinum Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 compilation.

Thriller spent an amazing 37 weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200, spinning off seven top-10 hits, among them the chart-topping singles “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” and the #2 Paul McCartney duet “The Girl Is Mine.”

The album also is credited with breaking the color barrier at MTV. In 1982, the channel rarely played clips by Black artists — until “Billie Jean” came along. And the extended clip for “Thriller,” directed by John Landis and filled with state-of-the-art special effects and over-the-top choreography, became the standard by which all music videos were judged.

You can pre-order the Thriller reissues now. Here’s the original album’s full track list:

“Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin'”
“Baby Be Mine”
“The Girl Is Mine” (with Paul McCartney)
“Thriller”
“Beat It”
“Billie Jean”
“Human Nature”
“P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)”
“The Lady in My Life”

+ More