Most-heard single instrument

The individual musical instrument that has been heard by the most people is a difficult record to prove one way or another, and ultimately, no definitive answer is possible. The strongest candidate is probably a C. Bechstein grand piano known as the "Trident Piano", which was the house piano at London's Trident Studios from 1968 to 1981. It is the piano you can hear on such hits as "Hey Jude" by The Beatles, "Life on Mars" by David Bowie, "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed, "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon and "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John, as well as many others. Just those five songs have a combined 2.6 billion streams on Spotify as of 5 February 2025, and the albums they're from have gone platinum many times.

The Trident Piano was known for having a very bright tone and an uncomfortably heavy action, which required players to strike the keys harder than usual. In addition to those famous singles, it was used throughout Queen's first three albums, on every David Bowie release from 1969 to 1973, as well as The Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed and Elton John's self-titled debut, Tumbleweed Connection and Madman Across the Water albums.

Another two strong possible candidates both belonged to drummers. The first is Ringo Starr's 1963 Ludwig "Jazz Festival" snare drum, which was used on every Beatles recording from "She Loves You" onwards. Ringo used several different kits with The Beatles, but always the same snare. The second is the "Monster Set" – a drumkit played by legendary American session drummer Hal Blaine, who featured on countless hits from the 1950s to 1980s. This one is complicated by the fact that Hal Blaine actually had two identical "monster sets" that he used interchangeably. They were originally labelled Set 1 and Set 2, but after record producers inexplicably decided they liked the sound of Set 1 better, he labelled the cases for both as "Set 1" because he didn't want to be constantly moving one kit from studio to studio.

Among other instrumental players, it is rare for them to use the same instrument throughout their careers. Even if they reliably play the same instrument live, it's not unusual for players to use something different in the studio at the suggestion of a producer.