Tickle Toe is a swing jazz tune written by Lester Young and first recorded and released in 1940 by Count Basie and His Orchestra. The March 19, 1940 recording made it a prominent Basie big band instrumental featuring Young on tenor sax. Although not tied to a specific album at release, it became a staple of the Basie repertoire and a jazz standard. The tune has been adapted many times, including a 1958 Count Basie vocal version with Annie Ross, Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Joe Williams, and a French version Le racket et les balles by Mimi Perrin in 1962. It is generally performed as a tenor sax feature in the swing tradition and has been recorded by numerous artists over the decades.
