Needed: A new lullaby playlist

Billy doesn't like Pink Floyd, so I need to build a whole new lullaby playlist for him

A good “lullabies playlist” needs to achieve two objectives. First, the early songs in the playlist should be capable of putting the child to sleep. The purpose of the later songs in the playlist is to sustain the sleep - keep the child asleep until it is in deep sleep, after which you can turn off the music.

I’ve documented the process of making the playlist for my daughter’s sleep here. I’m happy to report that she still goes to bed (occasionally) to this playlist. This is what it looks like now.

Now, my son is a little different. He also goes to bed to Iron Man (to the extent that my daughter has started hating the song now - she listens to it too often, and at times when she’s not looking to fall asleep). Typically by the time Stairway to Heaven plays, he is fast asleep, and even if he isn’t, it is good enough to put him to sleep.

The problem is that Billy doesn’t like Pink Floyd.

If you notice the above playlist you see that there are lots of long Pink Floyd songs here. Those are all excellent for keeping Berry asleep. Billy usually wakes up screaming somewhere in the middle of Echoes. This has happened enough times that I need to build a sleep playlist for him.

And this is where I need some “wisdom of crowds”. Based on the following data points, can you recommend what songs I need to add to the playlist so that it can keep Billy asleep after he has gone to bed to Iron Man / Stairway to Heaven?

• He is a light sleeper. The sudden transitions in Pink Floyd, I think, put him off.

• This morning, after he went to bed, I played the entire album of Ride The Lightning, and that kept him asleep.

• When he was very young, and he didn’t yet like Iron Man, he used to like Paranoid (which I’ve argued has the “perfect frequency for headbanging”)

• The overall playlist needs to sound sort of “homogeneous” without too many inter-song transitions (apart from the top of the order). I had added Pull Me Under, but that didn’t work out .

Actually, I realise that the way I’ve phrased the above question, I might as well ask it to ChatGPT (I’m so used to talking to ChatGPT nowadays that it seems to affect the way I talk to other people now!).

This is what ChatGPT says:

Based on the data points and the need for a homogeneous playlist with minimal transitions:

• Metallica - “Fade to Black” (from Ride the Lightning)

• Black Sabbath - “Planet Caravan” (from Paranoid)

• Led Zeppelin - “Going to California”

• Deep Purple - “Child in Time”

• Rush - “The Trees”

• The Eagles - “Hotel California”

• Eric Clapton - “Tears in Heaven”

• Dire Straits - “Brothers in Arms”

• The Beatles - “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”

These should provide a consistent flow and complement “Iron Man” and “Stairway to Heaven” without abrupt transitions.

Some of this I’m not so sure. Like Fade to Black is going straight in. It’s an obvious addition. Planet Caravan maybe nice but I don’t like the song. And I don’t know why it thinks there are no abrupt transitions between that and Going to California!

So, my dear human readers, please suggest what I should add to Billy’s sleep playlist so that I can keep him asleep after he has gone to bed to Iron Man and Stairway to Heaven. I need a playlist at least two hours long.