East St. Louis Toodle-Oo

"East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" (also "Toodle-O" and "Todolo") is a composition written by Duke Ellington and Bubber Miley and recorded several times by Ellington for various labels from 1926–1930 under various titles.

[1] This song was the first charting single for Duke Ellington in 1927 and was one of the main examples of his early "jungle music".

[2] The composition entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2023.

Along with recording "Toodle-Oo", two other compositions were recorded at the same session, "Hop Head" and "Down in Our Alley Blues", the former of which would be released as the B-side of Columbia 953-D.[4] "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" features a growling plunger-muted trumpet part played by co-composer Bubber Miley, one of the first jazz trumpeters to utilize the style.

For Steely Dan's 1974 cover of the song, Walter Becker played the melody with a talk box effect in order to imitate Miley's plunger-muted trumpet, while Jeff "Skunk" Baxter used a pedal steel guitar for the trombone part.