He played Swing with the bands of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman in the late 1930s and early 1940s, he played Dixieland from the 1930s into the 1970s in a variety of groups with many of the major figures in the field, and he was a featured soloist on the first ten of the numerous Jackie Gleason mood music albums during the 1950s.

Because his family was poor, with nine children, he quit school at 14 to play guitar and violin in a band in a local Chinese restaurant.

"[4] In Providence, he played in a couple of other local bands, then one in Syracuse, New York and another on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

[5] While there he became part of Dixieland musicians that included Pee Wee Russell, Brad Gowans, Zutty Singleton, Billy Butterfield, Dave Tough, Joe Sullivan, and Eddie Condon.

[2] In the late 1930s, Hackett played lead trumpet in the Vic Schoen Orchestra, which backed the Andrews Sisters.

[8] In 1939, the talent agency MCA asked Bobby Hackett to form a big band with its backing.

[2][10] Balliett says the twelve-bar solo "remains in its design (scale), tone (moonlike), and lyricism (Bach) one of the recorded improvisational wonders."

[13] A dream come true for Hackett was his inclusion in Louis Armstrong's 1947 Town Hall Jazz Concert.

[14] Baillett says of the concert, "Hackett's background figures made Louis Armstrong sound like a nightingale.

On November 9, he recorded "Body and Soul" with Sinatra and a large orchestra arranged and conducted by Alex Stordahl.

[16] Hackett took a leave of absence from ABC from 1951 to 1952 to organize a septet that played in several night clubs, including New York's The Embers.

In 2001, whenMosaic Records released The Complete Capitol Bobby Hackett Solo Sessions on a five-CD limited edition set,[17] most of the tracks were from Gleason's mood music albums.

The Hacketts lived primarily in New York City and spent summers on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.