"Scream & Shout" by will.i.am featuring Britney Spears is the top new entry on this week's Hot 100 at #12. It's vying to become will.i.am's 14th top 10 hit (but his first as a solo artist in the top-billed position); Spears' 12th (but her first as a featured artist). will.i.am has amassed 10 top 10 hits as a member of the Black Eyed Peas. He has also hit the top 10 as a featured artist on three hits: Fergie's "Fergalicious," Flo Rida's "In The Ayer" and Usher's "OMG."

"Scream & Shout" is from will.i.am's upcoming fourth solo studio album, #willpower, which is due Feb. 4. The song's music video premiered on The X Factor on Nov. 28.

It's hard to believe, but Friday marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Michael Jackson's Thriller, an album that appealed to all audiences—all ages, races and nationalities—like few other recordings in music history.

Jackson and producer Quincy Jones recorded and mixed the album between April and November 1982. Jones was 49 at the time. Jackson turned 24 during the sessions. The production budget was a reported $750K, which means Epic Records got a pretty good rate of return on its investment.

Thriller doesn't remotely sound 30 years old. Its best cuts, including "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," still sound fresh and vital.

Happily, Jackson lived to see the album meet the test of time. In 2008, the album was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. That same year, a 25th anniversary edition became the second best-selling album in the U.S. for two weeks, a rarity for a catalog album. Also that year, Rihanna's "Don't Stop The Music" (which sampled "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'") became a #3 hit, Fall Out Boy's "Beat It" (featuring John Mayer) made the top 20 and David Cook sang "Billie Jean" in route to his victory on American Idol.

To mark the anniversary, here are some things you probably know about Thriller—and some you may not.

This is one of those weeks where the downward moves and slow starts are more interesting than the upward moves. Susan Boyle's Standing Ovation: The Greatest Songs From The Stage drops from #12 to #31 in its second week, suggesting that her appeal owed a great deal to her compelling back story (the frumpy woman with the golden voice), a hook that is no longer fresh. The Rolling Stones' GRRR! drops from #19 to #64 in its second week, proving that a 50th anniversary hook isn't enough to sell a three-disk album in this market and/or that even with name-checks in #1 hits by Ke$ha and Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera, Mick Jagger is still a distant figure to today's record buyers.

Adele's 21 performs two miracles this week. It tops the 10 million mark in U.S. sales, a milestone that most had figured was out of reach for newer releases, given the diminished sales of recent years. And it reached the 10 million mark in less than two years (92 weeks, to be exact), faster than any other album since *NSYNC's No Strings Attached hit 10M in its 43rd week in January 2001.

*NSYNC's album was released in 2000, when album sales were at a dizzy peak. Record stores were still prevalent back then, if you can imagine that. The fact that 21 has reached 10M in a markedly more challenging sales environment is extraordinary.