“Salt Peanuts" is a bebop tune composed by Dizzy Gillespie in 1942, credited “with the collaboration of" bebop drummer Kenny Clarke. It is unique in that it has a small sung part in which the singer sings “Salt peanuts, salt peanuts." Most bebop songs have no singing (aside from Scat singing.) Many consider the song a bop jazz standard. Perhaps one of the most famous recordings of this tune is on the Live at the Massey Hall, Toronto, 1953 album, where Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker played with one of their most successful line-ups, which included Max Roach on drums, Bud Powell on piano and Charles Mingus on bass.

The “Salt Peanuts" motif predates Gillespie/Clarke by at least several months, as it appears as a six-note instrumental phrase played on piano by Count Basie on his July 2, 1941 recording of “Basie Boogie" for the Columbia/OKeh label. Basie also played it in a recorded live performance at Cafe Society later that year.

President Jimmy Carter sang “Salt Peanuts" at Dizzy Gillepsie’s request at the White House jazz festival on June 18, 1978.