Covering 4 Decades in 20 Songs - Does your playlist do that too?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was inspired by another thread to take a closer look at my current playlist to see what sort of songs I had in it, and was surprised by the variation in release years in the first nineteen (or the only 19 really, since its a CD). I guess its a pretty random selection even for me - I tend to bunch similar sounding songs together, so they usually tend to be spread over maybe 3 to 4 years. Anyone else has a playlist that displays this strange behaviour?

California Dreamin’ - The Mamas and The Papas - 1967
Celebrity Skin - Hole - 1998
Stand By Me - Ben E. King - 1962
Sublime - Santeria - 1996
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison - 1967
Beautiful Girl - INXS - 1992
Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond - 1970
Sing - Travis - 2001
Only Happy When It Rains - Garbage - 1995
Bad Touch - Bloodhound Gang - 2000
Learn To Fly - Foo Fighters - 1999
100 Years - Five For Fighting - 2004
Who Do You Love - George Thorogood - 1978
Don’t Look Back In Anger - Oasis - 1995
Message In A Bottle - The Police - 1979
One Headlight - The Wallflowers - 1996
Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve - 1997
Champagne Supernova - Oasis - 1995
Kryptonite - 3 Doors Down - 2000
1962 - 2004…42 years in 19 songs. Am I weird or is this par for the course?

2

Just let me AutoDJ pick 20.

Daddy’s Home - Shep and the Limelights - 1960s
Stomp Box - They Might Be Giants - 1990s
Nightswimming - REM - 1990s
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Gene Autry - 1940s (I think)
It’s all been done - Barenaked Ladies - 1990s
Christmas Blues - Clapton/Popper - 1990s
Memory - CATS - 1980s
Tainted Love - Soft Cell - 1980s
Ooby Dooby - Roy Orbison - 1960s
The Soul Cages - Sting - 1990s
Rescue of the Princess - London Symphony Orchestra - 1970s
Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley - 1950s
I’m Just a Bill - Schoolhouse Rock - 1970s

I’ll stop there. But that gives me from the 40s to today.

3

Well, I listen to a lot of classical, so if you go by when the pieces were written, I have several centuries.

4

I just shuffled 20 songs, and I got songs that were recorded anywhere from 1952 to 2005, a 53 year span. I do have some songs that go back to the 20’s, so I could conceivably get as much as an 80 year span.

Jonathan Chance, here’s a quote from songfacts.com:

The <snipped> part refers to Johnny Marks’ brother-in-law, who wrote the original story of Rudolph for Montgomery Ward’s Christmas coloring book promotional giveaway in 1939.

5

My collection (excluding classical music) runs from Cab Calloway and Cole Porter to the White Stripes and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy so 70+ years isn’t out of reach for me.

6

Between Mozart, Scott Joplin, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Redding, and Macy Grey–I’m fairly covered for a good span.
My guess would be that 40 years would be a pretty good average for any random 20 songs.