The five greatest singing drummers of all time
When music first began, there was drumming and singing… and that was it. Drumming is the driving force of the rhythm section, while singing is the basis of the melody. Thus, doing those two things simultaneously requires the brain to compartmentalise two disparate tasks at the same time. Imagine your feet doing one thing, your hands doing another, and your passionately delivering words that don’t align with either. It’s very tricky, to say the least.
On top of that, both aspects are testing your breathing and stamina at the same time. You’re also firing your motor cortex at the same time that you’re engaging with emotional expression. You don’t want to enter an automated mode because who wants an expressionless singer, but you also don’t want to fully comprehend the amount of plates you’re spinning.
With all these challenges in mind, it is perhaps no surprise that true singing drummers are few and far between. However, the very best make it look as easy as scrolling through Instagram while scratching an itch. There are a few rare folks out there who are so naturally musical that they barely have to think about the mindboggling process and it all comes out as seamless expression.
Below, we have charted the best of them. These are the legends who could rattle off the ‘Moby Dick’ solo while singing through one of Shakespeare’s sonnets and make it sound sublime. The likes of Anderson Paak may join them in years to come as a few more proponents of the art form seem to emerge, but for now, we’re focusing on those that have the talent in the bank—and that’s what we’re ranking them on here: pure objective talent.
The five greatest singing drummers ranked:
Don Henley
It’s both Don Henley‘s greatest strength as a musician and the downfall of his position in this list that his singing-drumming was eclipsed by his songwriting. Even the Eagles man himself would admit that he is, first and foremost, a writer. As his bandmate Don Felder opined, “I think Don Henley is a brilliant contemporary rock writer. He would have been a fabulous poet if he weren’t a musician. He was a literary major.“
So, from his stool, he became one of the finest soft rock observers of American life. But as Felder adds, he’s also “gifted with a brilliant voice. To me, Don could sing the New York City Yellow Pages and I’d buy it. I just love the sound of his voice.“ His drumming is far from shabby, either. However, neither of these elements are quite as distinct as his poetic outlook.
Yukihiro Takahashi
It’s hard enough to play the drums and sing, let alone do both simultaneously while imbuing them with a swaggering personality. With Yellow Magic Orchestra, Yukihiro Takahashi helped to create some of the most original music ever put to tape. As Colin Self proclaimed, he “was an expert at seamlessly weaving in humour and whimsy into hauntingly beautiful melodies and hypnotic sequences of percussion and synth.“ There are more than a few desperate facets in that assessment to testify for his perfectly well-rounded artistry.
Attached to more progressive projects than you could possibly shake a stick at without succumbing to cramp, in a prolific splurge, Takahashi laid out a blueprint for how actousic electronic music should sound. His outlook was holistic and purposeful, as he put it himself, “I wanted to combine elements from new and old music from abroad as well as from Japan and create something unique.” He achieved that with such aplomb that you could barely tell where the past ended the future began in his work. He could do everything, but of that everything it was his natural bent for rhythm that defined him best.
Phil Collins
Ozzy Osbourne called him “the best ever“, and Jimmy Page and Robert Plant figured he was good enough to fill the gargantuan shoes of John Bonham for a Led Zeppelin reunion. Those are two calling cards that any musician can take immense pride in, but Phil Collins can also add seven US number-one singles, a pivotal influence over the development of prog, and an appearance in Hook to his list of accolades.
However, his place on this list will likely fall under scrutiny from many, as his talents always have. “There’s a tendency for people to be cynical about popularity,“ he once told David Sheff, “like you’re appealing to the lowest common denominator, which is another term for trash. It’s an insulting attitude—insulting to the audience. I mean, sometimes I feel it. Like, God, I wish I were David Byrne, with this small, tight group of fans. The critics would like me. Instead, I’ve been taken less seriously because I’ve been more popular,“ he opined.
One critic even called him, “the ugliest man since George Orwell.“ As Collins rightfully pointed out, “What’s that got to do with the music?“ And he added for good measure, “By the way, how ugly was George Orwell?“ In short, when you look at the pure talent and innovation of Collins beyond the whiff of cheesiness, there are few legitimate questions for him to answer to.
Levon Helm
Levon Helm not only applied his sweet pipes and brooding rhythms to The Band and every other star they played for, but he also seemed to embolden the zeitgeist with a sui generis passion. As Bob Dylan said in remembrance of his old friend, “He was my bosom buddy friend to the end, one of the last true great spirits of my or any other generation.”
Both his drumming and vocals are unmistakable, and his performance in The Last Waltz is one of the finest ever recorded. He was a master of control and exuberance—blustering forth with all the gusto of a toddler who has just seen a ghost but never in a manner that derailed the song at hand. He was all rhythm, flow and poetic refinement. He was Americana.
The Band were full of talented folks, but Robbie Robertson opined that Levon was ”one of the most extraordinary talented people I’ve ever known.” Bruce Springsteen backed this sentiment when he added that Helm was ”one of the greatest, greatest voices in country, rockabilly and rock ‘n’ roll … staggering … while playing the drums. Both his voice and his drumming were so incredibly personal. He had a feel on the drums that comes out of certain place in the past and you can’t replicate it.”
Karen Carpenter
“I picked up a pair of sticks,” Karen Carpenter once proclaimed, “And it was the most natural-feeling thing I’ve ever done”. That’s a point that certainly came across in her seamless drumming. She made the mindboggling feat of rattling through rhythmic fills and singing melodic toplines simultaneously look as easy and consummate as whistling in the shower. As Anton Newcombe of Brian Jonestown Massacre fame told Far Out some time ago, she is in the “top tier of musicianship”.
This was ratified further by Blondie’s esteemed sticksmith Clem Burke, who also told us: “Karen was a fantastic drummer only overshadowed by her fantastic voice and femininity.” Highlighting her abundant and soulful talent that many others have championed in the past. As Burke asserts, she had flair in abundance as well as an array of chops.
While it might have enraged John Bonham when she eclipsed him in a Playboy poll as the greatest drummer of the age, her all-round talent was certainly worthy of plaudits. As Newcombe’s glowing testimony continues, “It’s easy to dismiss the sweet as pie wholesome ways of the saccharine, mellow music that the 1970s mainstream brother-sister group The Carpenters offered. However, we are blessed through streaming services like YouTube to be able to review absolutely incredible documentation of many artists. One clip that comes to mind, is a very young Karen Carpenter absolutely killing it on her version of ‘Dancing in the Street’ while singing.”
“It is very doubtful that the drummer of your favourite band could ever pull this off. It really shows off her skill,“ he adds. “It cements her legendary status in a way that the simple, quiet, but fitting drumming on their soft rock mega-hits do not. Mad respect.”
