NEW YORK (AP) — It's official: The influential New Jersey rock outfit My Chemical Romance has the No. 1 record in the U.S., having topped the all-genre Billboard 200 for the first time in their career. It just happens to be with an album that is two decades old.
“The Black Parade (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition),” a new reissue of their career-defining rock opera, 2006's “The Black Parade,” is No. 1, Billboard announced Sunday.
Upon its initial release, the album cemented My Chemical Romance's shift from mainstays of the emo scene to mainstream recognition, becoming one of the most inventive bands of the 21st century. Twenty years on, it continues to resonate with nostalgic fans and new ones.
Competition was stiff. Back in 2006, the soundtrack to Disney’s “Hannah Montana” was released the same week, selling 281,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. “The Black Parade” debuted at No. 2 with 240,000 copies. (Compare that to their previous album, 2004's “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge,” with a best sales week of 38,000 copies, and it was a massive commercial leap for the then-still alternative band.)
“It’s hard to go up against that type of a dedicated fan base, for Miley (Cyrus), Disney and pop music,” says Paige Owens, author of “500 Essential Emo Albums.”
“The Black Parade” is also an unusual, hyperambitious release. Back in 2006, when My Chemical Romance’s contemporaries were still playing in emo tropes, the band released a rock opera for outsiders — replete with world-building, characters, narrative, costumes and spectacle, covering themes of mortality, legacy, resilience and defiance.
And sonically, it was a giant step forward: a ’70s rock-inspired release filtered through the metallic noodling of guitarist Ray Toro, the punk rock ethos of its other guitarist Frank Iero and the unmistakable tenor of frontman and mastermind Gerard Way. Comparisons to various classic rock greats, including David Bowie and Queen, were frequent. Critical acclaim followed. “All of those things are familiar,” says Jason Pettigrew, former editor-in-chief of “Alternative Press.” “But they were also recontextualized with something remarkably contemporary.”
There are a few reasons. “The Black Parade” was re-released with 20 physical variants and six bonus tracks last week, which inspires sales, encourages collectability and fosters a sense of exclusivity among fans.
According to industry data and analytics company Luminate, it earned 78,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. last week, up 653% from the previous week. That was largely driven by pure album sales, which accounted for 68,000 units, a figure up 2,082% from the previous week.
Pettigrew points to a few other factors: The band broke up for a period in the 2010s, driving interest in a reunion. They stopped releasing records after 2010's “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys,” inspiring fans to return to their early material. But that wouldn't add up to much if “The Black Parade” “sounded like everybody else’s records,” he says. “They made the big gestures.”
In addition to the release, the band embarked on an extensive anniversary tour for the album, playing in some of their biggest venues yet. But instead of simply resurrecting the album on stage, they breathed new life into it, “expanding the lore and conceptualization behind the record,” says Owens, with new characters, set designs and even a fictional language. “I don't think we'd see the same excitement or attention around ‘The Black Parade’ if it weren’t for these live shows building off their initial vision.”
Pettigrew agrees. “They reframe their masterpiece into essentially a Broadway show with very dark undertones of the current political situation of the world,” he said. “They’ve completely raised the bar in terms of possibilities and conviction.”
It's a good question, and lately, the answer appears to be yes. In 2026 alone, Beyoncé's “B’Day,” The Beatles' “Rubber Soul” and Mac Miller's “The Divine Feminine” have all returned to the top 10 on the Billboard 200, though no catalog title had claimed the top spot until “The Black Parade.”
According to Billboard, “The Black Parade” marks the longest wait for an album to hit No. 1 after release. My Chemical Romance's 20-year stretch overtakes country star Toby Keith, whose “35 Biggest Hits” hit No. 1 in the wake of his 2024 death, nearly 16 years after the album's initial release.
Pettigrew argues both nostalgic audiences and newer, younger fans coming to the music for the first time helped power the recent sales. “Those guys had vision,” he said, and anyone can connect to their symbolism, which appeals directly to “disenfranchised people.”
Streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music play a role, too. Younger generations of fans have discovered “The Black Parade” years after its initial release — and many don't seem to mind that the record came out decades ago, sometimes before they were born.
“One of the silver linings of living in a streaming world is that it's very apparent that young people today do not care when something is in their hands,” said Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, whose band opened for MCR on their 2025 “The Black Parade” stadium tour. “I’m a firm believer in the idea that if something is new to you, it is new.”
Gibbard says My Chemical Romance are “absolutely” the best example of a veteran band experiencing an explosion of interest decades after their biggest release. He also says his own band has benefited from new, younger audiences discovering their catalog: Death Cab for Cutie was able to play arenas instead of their usual theaters when they took their career-defining albums, 2003’s “Transatlanticism,” and later, 2005’s “Plans,” on an anniversary run.
“I was not listening to John Coltrane when I was 12 years old, but at the point that his music came into my life and started to really move me, I was just glad it was there,” he said. “I think a lot of young people seem to have that attitude.”
In the case of My Chemical Romance's “The Black Parade,” they certainly do.
FILE - Members of the band My Chemical Romance, from left, Ray Toro, Bob Bryar, Mikey Way, Frank Iero and Gerard Way appear on MTV'S TRL with host Damien Fahey in New York on Oct. 24. 2006. (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin, File)
FILE - Lead vocalist Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance appears during the opening night of the band's "Long Live the Black Parade" tour in Seattle on July 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
FILE - Lead vocalist Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance performs during the opening night of the band's "Long Live the Black Parade" tour in Seattle on July 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for another wave of strikes on Iran after Tuesday's midterm elections in the United States, according to two regional officials and a third person familiar with the matter.
A return to full-scale war with Iran could help Netanyahu to form an emergency government after he and his far-right allies lost their parliamentary majority in last week's elections. U.S. President Donald Trump has alternated between threatening major strikes while pushing for a deal with Iran.
The two officials said diplomatic efforts have made progress, with Qatari mediators holding two rounds of talks last week with Iranian officials. The two officials said the mediators are trying to advance a framework for Iran to cease its attacks in the Strait of Hormuz in return for the U.S. lifting its blockade on Iran's ports.
They said more talks are planned for this week. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified briefings they had received from American, and in one case Israeli, officials.
One official said Netanyahu was working with senior officials in the U.S. administration to persuade Trump to launch a quick but extensive air campaign and that the president does not appear to have made a decision.
Netanyahu pressed for strikes during a call over the weekend with Trump, who would not commit to taking military action, according to a person who was briefed on it.
Other U.S. allies in the Middle East are warning against more strikes, saying it would destabilize the region and could lead Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen to step up their attacks on Saudi Arabia and Red Sea shipping, a third regional official said. Iran-backed militias in Iraq could also get involved.
That official, and the person familiar with the Netanyahu-Trump call, were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Israeli government did not immediately comment. The White House did not directly respond to questions about Netanyahu and Trump’s discussion of potential new strikes during the weekend call.
Trump told reporters on Sunday that he and Netanyahu had a “very good” call the day before. He said they discussed Iran but gave no details. Netanyahu had pushed for renewed strikes even before the Israeli election as he sought to highlight his security credentials to a public deeply scarred by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Asked at a news conference Saturday about the possibility of new U.S. strikes on Iran and Iranian retaliation, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio would not say what would happen next but reiterated that the Trump administration prefers a diplomatic solution and that talks were ongoing.
“He hasn’t made a decision,” Rubio said, referring to Trump.
“He’d prefer to solve it diplomatically," Rubio said, adding that Trump has “incredible confidence” in military action if that is needed.
Netanyahu has not commented on Iran since the election, and there was no word from his office on the latest call with Trump.
“The standoff in the Gulf between the U.S. and Iran is really between Qatar and Israel,” Andreas Krieg, a professor at King’s College London, who previously worked as an adviser to Qatar's military, said on X.
“Qatar is tirelessly working on a diplomatic offramp with the region’s backing while Israel is looking for military ways to throw the region under the bus.”
Iran wants guarantees that the U.S. will implement its side of any agreement. The U.S. and Israel have twice attacked Iran while it was engaged in negotiations over its disputed nuclear program.
Iranian officials say publicly they are prepared for war or diplomacy.
The new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, met with Iran’s military chiefs and said the response to “any kind and level of threat” from the U.S. or Israel should be immediate and without “geographic limits,” and urged an expansion of the list of potential targets.
A recent analysis by The Associated Press found that Iranian strikes on more than two dozen U.S. bases since the start of the war have caused billions of dollars in equipment damage.
Khamenei has not been seen publicly since the opening strikes by Israel and the U.S. on Feb. 28 killed his father, the previous supreme leader.
Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, told state television that “the tone has completely changed” from the U.S. and called it a “very good sign.” He gave no details about the letter he received from U.S. Vice President JD Vance, which Iran acknowledged last week, and said he had not responded.
October saw the most attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz since March, as Iran has tried to ramp up economic pressure on the U.S. to get it to lift its blockade.
The mood was grim at the Manama Dialogue, an annual security summit in Bahrain organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
United Arab Emirates presidential adviser Anwar Gargash told attendees that the U.S. and Iranian stances are far apart, and “if these positions are not bridged, then we have to worry about the worst.”
Gulf nations have spent billions of dollars to boost their defense capabilities since the war began. Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told the gathering in Bahrain that the next escalation “will be more dangerous, more destructive, and it will lead to nowhere.”
China will send a special envoy to Iran, Oman and Saudi Arabia in early to mid-November, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters Monday.
“The Middle East Gulf region should not become an arena for great-power rivalry and geopolitical conflict,” Chinese President Xi Jinping told Oman’s sultan, according to a readout from China’s Foreign Ministry. China and Oman called for a return to dialogue.
Magdy reported from New York and Madhani from Washington. Victoria Eastwood in Cairo, Kanis Leung in Hong Kong and Katie Marie Davies in London contributed to this report.
AP STANDARDS: The AP uses anonymous sources only when the information is vital to the news report and not opinion or speculation. The information must be unavailable except under the conditions of anonymity imposed by the source. The source must be reliable, in a position to have accurate information and approved by news managers.
Supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu protest against left-wing activists calling for the formation of a government that includes Arab parties, following Israel's general election, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
President Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House after stepping off Marine One, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Posters of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, center, and his father, the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are seen alongside dried flowers on a barricade placed on the street leading to their residence compound where the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed during the U.S. and Israel strike on Feb. 28, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
