Best Singing Drummers

A co-worker and I got in a discussion over the best singing drummers. These aren't drummers that became singers, like Dave Grohl, but rather singers who sang and played drums simultaneously. Some are obvious -- some not so much. I'll try and recreate the conversation in this space with a few of the contenders:

Phil Collins
The Genesis drummer was one of the best of all time back in the band's mid-70s heyday. After Peter Gabriel left, Collins became the band's singer, and took the proggiest of prog rock bands to commercial stardom. Here's a collection of some of his best drumming parts with Genesis in the 70s.

And here he is in 1982 drumming and singing his solo hit "In the Air Tonight".

Ringo Starr

Another obvious choice -- but he wasn't the Beatles primary singer, so I'm not sure he should count.

Levon Helm

The late Band drummer/singer certainly deserves merit on this list. He even talks about drumming and singing here. Here he is singing and drumming on the classic "The Weight".

Dave Clark

The leader of the British Invasion band the Dave Clark Five, Clark drummed and sang. And somehow, he made it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Notice there's no microphone at Clark's kit in this 1964 Top of the Pops appearance -- they didn't even try to pretend they weren't lip syncing.

That guy from the Romantics

His name was Jimmy Marinos, and he was an original member of the Detroit power pop quartet. He sung lead and drummed on their first big hit, 1980's "What I Like About You", but he didn't sing on 1983's "Talking in Your Sleep".

 

Grant Hart

This is my personal choice. Hart was the other half of the songwriting team of punk-indie trailblazers Husker Du, opposite Bob Mould. He was a fantastic songwriter, writing and singing many of the bands classics. And the creative competition between Hart and Mould led the pair to continually out-do each other, as writer Michael Azerrad puts it, and with spectacular results. Husker Du's run from 1984's classic Zen Arcade, 1985's New Day Rising and Flip your Wig, and 1986's Candy Apple Gray would be difficult for any band to repeat. Here's the Hart-penned, -sung and -drummed "Don't Want to Know if You are Lonely".