The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) of 21st February 1941 reported that a song titled Padoodle, “about a boy, a girl and a “one-eyed automobile””, had been announced a nation-wide second place winner in Tommy Dorsey’s Fame and Fortune. It had been written the previous year by a Pittsburgh orphan boy, Robert Ruben, who, encouraged by this success, went on writing songs.

The earliest occurrence of the form padiddle that I have found is in the comic strip Archie, by Robert William ‘Bob’ Montana (1920-75), published in the Nevada State Journal of 23rd May 1948: