iTunes twofer playlist

When I lived in Ft. Lauderdale (this would have been the early 1980s), there was a local radio station with what they called “Twofer Tuesday,” where they played two songs by the same artist, followed by two more by a different artist, and so on throughout the day.

I enjoyed it. Of necessity it eliminated the one-hit wonders. As performed by the DJs on that station, it produced a nice mix of newer and older stuff—most of the twofers had a recent hit followed by an older hit by the same performer or group.

A few years back, I spent some time trying to make an iTunes playlist that would give me twofers, and finally came up with something that was sorta okay.

I did it in two steps:

First, I created a smart playlist for each artist that I wanted to hear twofers from. The basic playlists was “Artist contains artist-name,” “Rating is greater than 2 stars.” Then I limited it to 2 songs, selected by random. (That didn’t quite work—it gave me a single instance of the playlist. To fix that, I added a third rule “Last played is not in the last 2 days,” so that once I played a song it would drop out of the playlist and iTunes would give me a new song for next time.)

Second, I created a folder for all those playlists, and sorted that folder by Artist. Voila: A twofer playlist.

Except for the fact that it always plays my twofers in alphabetical order, it works great. (If you randomize it, it doesn’t group the two songs by the same artist together, which defeats the whole idea.)

Here’s the list I’m playing right now. (If you’re adequately OCD, you’ll notice that I won’t get my Alison Krauss’s played together, because the second one is credited as “Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss, and Emmylou Harris,” so it’s sorting between Fleetwood Mac and Huey Lewis and the News. I’m okay with that.)

Lord Grenville Year of the Cat Al Stewart
On the Border Year of the Cat Al Stewart
Teardrops Will Kiss the Morning Dew Two Highways Alison Krauss
Hello City Gordon Barenaked Ladies
If I Had $1000000 Gordon Barenaked Ladies
Paperback Writer 1 The Beatles
Hey Jude 1 The Beatles
The Stranger The Stranger Billy Joel
Only The Good Die Young The Stranger Billy Joel
Down On The Corner Chronicle Creedence Clearwater Revival
Someday Never Comes Chronicle Creedence Clearwater Revival
Tulsa Time Just One Night (CD1) Eric Clapton
Rambling On My Mind Just One Night (CD2) Eric Clapton
Second Hand News Rumours Fleetwood Mac
Dreams Rumours Fleetwood Mac
Didn’t Leave Nobody But The Baby O Brother, Where Art Thou? Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss, and Emmylou Harris
Whole Lotta Lovin’ Fore! Huey Lewis And The News
Walking On A Thin Line Sports Huey Lewis And The News
Something In The Way She Moves Best Of James Taylor James Taylor
Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight Best Of James Taylor James Taylor
Danger Danger Folk is the New Black Janis Ian
Passion Play Restless Eyes Janis Ian
The Town Crotch Thing a Week I Jonathan Coulton
Mr. Fancy Pants Thing a Week V Jonathan Coulton
Make You Feel My Love Heart of Mine: Love Songs of Bob Dylan Maria Muldaur
Midnight at the Oasis Maria Muldaur Maria Muldaur
The Nearness of You Come Away With Me Norah Jones
Those Sweet Words Feels Like Home Norah Jones