Karen Carpenter’s intuitive choice of instruments was drums, but she had to break down a few invisible walls, crack a few glass ceilings, and crash a few cymbals along the way. However, by the height of her career with her brother Richard in the mid-1970s, millions of people loved drummer/singer Karen Carpenter. Just about everyone, except one person: Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham. For all the people who said they subscribed to Playboy Magazine mostly for the articles, it really was true for the dedicated music lovers who helped make the Playboy Music Poll one of the benchmarks and most respected polls of its time. We’ll pass on repeating Bonham’s exact quote once he heard that she beat him out in Playboy’s 1975 Music Poll as Best Drummer but, suffice to say, he wasn’t one of the readers who voted for her. Beyond that, there’s no official word on what other drummers, including Ginger Baker (Cream) and Keith Moon (Who), were thinking once they found out readers placed them a few notches below Karen as well. However, many other world class drummers proudly endorsed her skills, including Wrecking Crew member Hal Blaine (who worked with the Carpenter’s for many years) and drumming legend Buddy Rich.
Generally regarded as one of the quintessential female pop vocalists of all time, Karen Carpenter’s first love was the drums. She’d been drawn to the instrument from the start, but she took detours playing the flute and the glockenspiel before she could start crashing cymbals in earnest.

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