Karen Carpenter

Occasionally a topic will abruptly occur to me, and I do a Wikipedia search on it.

So: Karen Carpenter was one-half of the brother-sister duo, The Carpenters.


From Wikipedia:

When Karen entered Downey High School, she joined the school band. The conductor (who had previously taught her older brother) gave her the glockenspiel, an instrument she disliked. After admiring the performance of a friend named Frankie Chavez, she asked the conductor if she could play the drums instead.[6] Drumming came naturally to Carpenter, and she practiced for several hours a day.



And:

Many people are unaware that Karen had an impeccable ability to play the drums, in part because the public wanted a singing Karen Carpenter, rather than a drumming Karen Carpenter[citation needed]. However, according to Richard Carpenter in an interview, Karen always considered herself a "drummer who sang."


That's pretty danged cool.


--GG