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Barack Obama shares a playlist of favorite songs from White House years

Beyoncé, Bob Dylan, U2 and Eminem all made the former president's list.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
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Of course, Stevie Wonder is on former President Barack Obama's playlist.

Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Want to go back in time, at least musically? Former President Barack Obama put together a playlist of music he enjoyed listening to during his time in office, tweeting it out on Monday. The list covers a wide variety of musical genres, from country (Brooks & Dunn) to rap ( Eminem ), and it includes music from well before 2009-2017, Obama's time in the White House.

"Music has always played an important role in my life -- and that was especially true during my presidency," Obama wrote in the tweet. "In honor of my book hitting shelves tomorrow, I put together this playlist featuring some memorable songs from my administration. Hope you enjoy it."

The book Obama mentions is A Promised Land, the first volume of his presidential memoirs, which will be published Nov. 17 by Crown Publishing Group.

Some of the songs are obvious Obama favorites -- including The Beatles' Michelle, which shares the name of Obama's wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, and which Paul McCartney performed at the White House in 2010. The list also includes Beyoncé 's version of Etta James' classic At Last -- Beyoncé sang the song at the Obamas' 2009 Neighborhood Inaugural Ball.

Obama regularly shares his musical favorites and did so during his presidency as well. In August, he shared a summer playlist including tunes from Billie Eilish and Bob Marley. He's also shared lists that include his favorite books, movies and television shows.

In just over two hours, the tweet featuring the playlist was liked more than 100,000 times.