[5] By sixteen, Barnet had played on tours with Jean Goldkette's satellite band and was in New York, where he joined Frank Winegar's Pennsylvania Boys on tenor sax.

Always restless, by 1931 he had relocated to Hollywood and appeared as a film extra while trying to interest local bandleaders in hot music, which was increasingly unpopular due to the Great Depression.

Barnet began recording in October 1933, during an engagement at New York's Park Central Hotel, but was not a great success for most of the 1930s, regularly breaking up his band and changing its style.

Early in 1935, he attempted to premiere swing music at New Orleans' Hotel Roosevelt, where Louisiana's colorful Governor Huey Long, disliking the new sound, had the band run out of town by luring them to a bordello, which was then raided.

The height of Barnet's popularity—and his first truly permanent band—came between 1939 and 1941, a period that began with his hit version of "Cherokee", written by Ray Noble and arranged by Billy May.

[1] In September 1964, Barnet arranged a private party for his musical hero, Duke Ellington, and orchestra to play at Palm Springs' San Jacinto country club.

At the door, a small sign painted by Barnet said: "Any complaints about loud music or requests for excessive use of mutes will be grounds for instant expulsion (to a table in the parking lot).

Any requests for folk music, twist, watusi, or rock and roll will result in instant execution by golf balls at 20 paces.

[6] Barnet was married eleven times and in his autobiography says: "I went through several more marital fiascos, but they were mostly Mexican marriages and quickly annulled, because they weren't legal in the first place.

)", "I Kinda Like You", "Tappin' at the Tappa", "The Last Jump", "Knocking at the Famous Door", "Lazy Bug" (with Juan Tizol), "Ogoun Badagris (Voodoo War God)", "Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie", and "In a Mizz", which was also recorded by Duke Ellington.

[12] The title (which was originally printed as "Sky Liner") may be a reference to the practice of American pilots flying into Munich who used the radio station's powerful signal to home in on the city.