Help me build my Pandora Stations

[Boyo Jim]

I've started my Pandora service by creating 4 stations with "seed" artists, and another with "seed" tracks. Please help me by nominating additional seeds or telling me to get rid of the inappropriate ones. For those who don't know, you build a Pandora station by adding "seeds" -- tracks or artists whose music you want to play, along with other music that Pandora thinks is related to the music you pick.

For simplicity's sake, "contemporary" means artists that were reasonably popular during my lifetime, and the oldies are ones whose careers peaked before my time.

Here are my stations and seeds so far:

Classic Rock & Roll
Atlanta Rhythm Section
Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blue Oyster Cult
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
Bruce Springsteen
Buddy Holly & The Crickets
Chicago
Chuck Berry
Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Deep Purple
Derek & The Dominos
Eagles
Electric Light Orchestra
Eric Burdon & The Animals
Eurythmics
Foghat
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap
Grand Funk Railroad
Guess Who
Heart
Iron Butterfly
James Gang
Janis Joplin
Jay & The Americans
Jefferson Airplane
Jerry Lee Lewis
Johnny Rivers
Led Zeppelin
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Matchbox Twenty
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Pat Benatar
Patti Smith Group
Paul Revere & The Raiders
REO Speedwagon
Steppenwolf
Steve Miller Band
Stray Cats
Supertramp
The Allman Brothers Band
The Beatles
The Cars
The Classics IV
The Doobie Brothers
The Edgar Winter Group
The Kinks
The Marshall Tucker Band
The Monkees
The Moody Blues
The Police
The Ramones
The Rascals
The Rolling Stones
The Who
The Zombies
Three Dog Night
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (Holiday)
U2
Uriah Heep
ZZ Top

R&B/Soul
Al Green
Al Jarreau
Al Wilson
Aretha Franklin
B.B. King
Barry White
Ben E. King
Bill Withers
Billie Holiday
Billy Paul
Curtis Mayfield
Dinah Washington
Etta James
George Benson
Gladys Knight & The Pips
Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes
Ike & Tina Turner
Isaac Hayes
Jackie Wilson
Jimmy Ruffin
John Legend
Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr.
Martha & The Vandellas
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
Otis Redding
Sam Cooke
Smokey Robinson
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
Stevie Wonder
The Commodores
The Four Tops
The Isley Brothers
The Love Unlimited Orchestra
The Spinners
The Staple Singers
The Supremes
The Temptations

Contemporary Crooners
Aaron Neville
Alison Krauss
Annie Lennox
Art Garfunkel
Bill Withers
Carly Simon
Chris Isaak
Dan Fogelberg
Diana Krall
Donald Fagen
Dusty Springfield
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt & Dolly Parton
Enya
Etta James
Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
Harry Connick, Jr.
Huey Lewis And The News
Jackson Browne
James Taylor
Janis Joplin
Joe Cocker
Johnny Mathis
Johnny Nash
Joni Mitchell
k.d. lang
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt & The Nelson Riddle Orchestra
Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts
Nina Simone
Norah Jones
Peter, Paul & Mary
Robert Palmer
Rod Stewart
Roy Orbison
Sarah McLachlan
Sarah McLachlan & Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Sinead O'Connor
The Cranberries
The Drifters
Van Morrison

Oldie Crooners
Bing Crosby
Bobby Darin
Dean Martin
Ella Fitzgerald
Etta James
Frank Sinatra
Harry Connick, Jr.
Jo Stafford
Johnny Hartman
Johnny Mathis
Judy Garland
Louis Armstrong
Louis Prima
Nat King Cole
Patsy Cline
Perry Como
Tennessee Ernie Ford
The Ink Spots
Tony Bennett


Surf (Seeded by Track, not Artist)
Baja
Beyond The Surf
California Sun
Kamikazee
Let's Go Surfing
Miserlou
Peter Gunn Theme
Pipeline
Stormtail
Surfer Girl
Surfin' Bird
Surfin' U.S.A
The Lonely Sea
The Lonely Surfer
The Sloop John B.

[Saltire]

I decided to do 'Soft Rock' station. Seeded it with one band, Air Supply. Have never had to thumbs-down a song for not fitting the theme. Though I have thumbs-upped some, which has refined it.

I don't expect you probably want a Soft Rock station. But if you do, that'll make one.

[wheresmymind]

Good lord, most of my stations have a half-dozen seeds, tops. Your classic rock and contemporary crooners combined probably have more seeds than my whole station list! Not saying that's bad, just different. But that's the beauty of Pandora, you can use it different ways to get different results.

One piece of advice is to go easy on the "thumbs up" button, and keep your artists segregated by genre. I find that if I just let myself go and get sloppy, all my stations end up sounding the same in a month or so. In my case, this involves "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. playing within 3 songs, no matter what station I choose. I mean, I like the song, but not nearly as much as Pandora seems to think I do!

[Boyo Jim]

The reason I added so many is that my first experiment, with a single "seed" had such poor results, with the same songs playing over and over again within a few hours of creating the station. I did this other thread about it.

Also, I would much rather just listen while I'm doing other things, and not have go back to the page every few minutes to vote things up or down.

[Lute Skywatcher]

I have a '50s playlist that will fit well with your Classic Rock.

Seeds
Danny & The Juniors
Jerry Lee Lewis
The Dovells
Sha Na Na
The Coasters
The Platters
Fats Domino