What Bands Have the Most Consecutive Gold or Platinum Albums?

The Recording Industry Association of America, or the RIAA, is the authoritative trade organization for record labels. The RIAA is able to measure and quantify sales for albums and awards artists and their record labels with Gold or Platinum awards depending on an album's sales. A Gold label is for an album that has sold 500,000 copies in the United States. A Platinum label is for an album that has sold over 1 million copies in the United States. Some popular artists are known to have consecutive Gold or Platinum albums in their recording careers.

According to the RIAA database, the Beatles were awarded seven Gold records in a row between Feb. 3, 1964, and May 5, 1977. The albums include two Beatles compilations, "The Beatles 1962-1966" and "The Beatles 1967-1970," as well as a live album, "The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl." In addition to these Gold records, the Beatles have a number of Platinum records. In total, since "The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl" went Platinum on Aug. 12, 1977, The Beatles have nine albums, compilations and live albums that have gone Platinum and multi-platinum, making The Beatles the single most bought artists ever with over 177 million copies of all of their albums sold.

From "Led Zeppelin I," which went Gold on July 22, 1969, to "In Through The Out Door," which went Gold on Jan. 7, 1980, every consecutive Led Zeppelin studio album, totaling nine albums, went Gold. They are one of the top selling bands of all time with over 111.5 million copies of their records sold. After the Led Zeppelin album "Presence" went Platinum on April 12, 1976, 18 Led Zeppelin albums, including complete recordings, BBC session albums, live albums, and best-of albums, have gone Platinum.

The American rock band the Eagles enjoyed Gold success from their debut album onward. Their first album, "Eagles," went Gold two years after its release in 1972. Subsequent albums such as "On The Border" and "Desperado" also went Gold. In total, from "Eagles" to the 2007 release "Long Road To Eden," the Eagles have 14 Gold albums. The Eagles album "Hotel California," which was released on Nov. 8, 1976, has gone several times Platinum since that release. On March 20, 2001, "Hotel California" had officially sold over 16 million copies. The Eagles have 14 albums in their career, including live albums and best of compilations, that went platinum.

The Rolling Stones' long career spanning from their first Gold record, "Out Of Their Heads," from Oct. 12, 1965, has helped the Stones gain a long list of consecutive Gold and Platinum records. From "Out Of Their Heads," the Rolling Stones had consecutively gained 19 Gold records until the release of their 1976 album "Black and Blue." "Black and Blue" became the first Rolling Stones album to go Platinum. Albums released before and after 1976 by the Rolling Stones have subsequently gone Platinum, allowing the Stones to have sold 66 million copies of their albums.

Pink Floyd, according to the RIAA, has sold around 74.5 million records. Beginning with the release of their album "Dark Side of the Moon" on April 17, 1973, Pink Floyd gained five straight Gold Records with "Dark Side," "Meddle," "Ummagumma," "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals." The first Platinum album by Pink Floyd was "The Wall," which went Platinum on March 13, 1980. As of Jan. 29, 1999, "The Wall" had gone Platinum 23 times. 15 albums by Pink Floyd, including live albums and compilations, have gone Platinum since "Animals" on March 10, 1977.

In total, the band Aerosmith has sold around 66.5 million copies of their albums. The band's first Gold album was the release "Get Your Wings," which went Gold on April 18, 1975. In total since the release of "Get Your Wings" to the year 2004, 15 albums by Aerosmith have gone Gold. The album "Rocks" by Aerosmith was their first release that went Platinum on July 9, 1976. As of 2002, 18 albums by Aerosmith have gone platinum or multi-platinum.

The band AC/DC, which released the 2008 album "Black Ice," has sold a total of 71 million albums. "Black Ice" became a Gold album Nov. 20, 2008. The RIAA traces back the first AC/DC Gold album to be "Highway To Hell," which went Gold on Dec. 6, 1979. From "Highway to Hell" to "Black Ice," AC/DC has a total of 20 albums that have gone Gold. The first Platinum album by AC/DC is also "Highway to Hell," which became Platinum on March 18, 1980. AC/DC also has the honor of having the same 20 Gold albums in their career go Platinum.