Valerie Bertinelli's then-husband Eddie Van Halen did the soundtrack for this movie.
Eddie Van Halen did the soundtrack during the peak of Van Halen's original lineup, 1984, which is also the title of their last (until much later) album with David Lee Roth.
Although not credited, boxing champ Larry Holmes is in one of the casinos, as boxers often work in casinos.
Thomas Newman is credited at the end as the Music Composer while in the opening credits it's Special Musical Sequences by Edward Van Halen and Don Landee. There are three instrumental tracks, including the opening intro instrumental (the only keyboard track that includes guitar), done by Van Halen with his producer Don Landee. The rest was done by Newman (tracks with violins, etc) despite the director wanting the extremely-busy Edward Van Halen to score the entire thing.
Fredric Lehne and Dinah Manoff were both in "Ordinary People", playing friends of Timothy Hutton's lead character. Valerie Bertinelli co-starred with Hutton in the television movie "Young Love, First Love" the year before "Ordinary People."