The xylophone (from the Greek words ξύλον — xylon, "wood" + φωνή —phonē, "sound, voice", meaning "wooden sound") is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden (not steel) bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children's instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use. The term may be used generally, to include all such instruments, such as the marimba and balafon or, more specifically, to refer to an orchestral instrument of somewhat higher pitch range than the chromatic marimba. It is sometimes mistakenly used of similar lithophones and metallophone instruments of the glockenspiel type such as the pixiphone.

The modern western xylophone has bars of rosewood, padak, or various synthetic materials such as fiberglass or fiberglass-reinforced plastic which allows a louder sound. Some can be as small a range as 2½ octaves but concert xylophones are typically 3½ or 4 octaves. The xylophone is a transposing instrument: its parts are written one octave below the sounding notes. Xylophones should be played with very hard rubber, polyball, or acrylic mallets. Sometimes medium to hard rubber mallets, very hard core, or yarn mallets are used for softer effects. Lighter tones can be created on xylophones by using wooden-headed mallets made from rosewood, ebony, birch, or other hard woods.

Teddy Brown (1900 – 1946) was an American entertainer who spent the latter part of his life performing in Britain. He was born Abraham Himmelbrand in 1900, and first played in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, but moved to the field of popular music in the 1920s.

He was noted for his rotund appearance, approaching 400 pounds in weight, and was often compared to (or considered the British answer to) another rotund band leader of the same era, Paul Whiteman.

Brown played several instruments, the saxophone, the drums, percussion, the xylophone, and he also whistled melodies while he played any of the percussion instruments.

He arrived in London in 1926. The next year he formed his own orchestra, playing at the Café de Paris. He went on to play in other night clubs both in London and Paris including the Kit Kat Club. The custom-made Besson xylophone he played had a six-octave range, two more than the usual xylophone. In 1927, the UK division of Lee DeForest's Phonofilm made a short film of Brown playing the xylophone.