Despite the title, only two of the 12 tracks on Gold & Platinum: Hits of the '80s, Vol. 3 even went gold according to the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA), Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald's "On My Own" and Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Loved You." But all of them reached the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1984 and 1986, and ten of them made the Top Ten, including three chart-toppers, the two previously mentioned gold records and Mr. Mister's "Kyrie." So they definitely were hits of the '80s. More significant, the album boasts a wider scope than comparable collections; most of the tracks come from the vaults of Sony, but there are also selections from three of the other four major record labels, and among them are songs by artists who usually withhold their work from compilations, notably the Moody Blues ("Your Wildest Dreams") and Wonder. The broad cooperation comes about because the disc, issued by the Columbia House music club label Realm Records, is a benefit album for the music industry's favored charity, the T.J. Martell Foundation for Leukemia, Cancer, and AIDS Research. The album may be another randomly sequenced sampler of big pop hits, but the selection is a slightly above the average. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide