During 1985, the RIAA certified 138 albums gold (sales of 500,000 copies) and 65 albums platinum (sales of 1 million copies). Not all of these, by the way, were pop or rock 'n' roll records: Luciano Pavarotti picked up a platinum certification for "O Holy Night," while a Patsy Cline "Greatest Hits" album released in 1967 went gold last year.

A number of soundtrack albums picked up certification. The soundtracks for "The Breakfast Club," "Back to the Future," "St. Elmo's Fire" and "Cats" went gold, as did "More Songs From the Big Chill." The soundtrack for "Vision Quest" went platinum. And three soundtracks went multiplatinum (sales of 2 million or more): "The Big Chill" (2 million), "Beverly Hills Cop" (2 million) and "Music From the TV Series Miami Vice" (3 million).