[2] While Barton was attending school, Stan Kenton came to teach at a music clinic at North Texas State University in August 1959.
His compositions Waltz of the Prophets and Turtle Talk were recorded as part of Kenton's Grammy award-winning album Adventures in Jazz.
[2] He eventually left the band in late 1963 to pursue a wider music career in Los Angeles.
He returned for short tours in 1967 worked with Kenton as drummer and arranger on the album The World We Know and Finian's Rainbow (1968).
In his spare time he ran a big band that played regularly at Donte's, a North Hollywood night-club.
It was there Clint Eastwood heard Barton's music, eventually commissioning him to write the scores for the films Play Misty For Me (1971), High Plains Drifter (1973), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) and Every Which Way But Loose (1978).
[2][3] Barton worked as a music consultant for Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones, Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett, John Lennon and others.
[2] He helped Jimmy Webb with the composition of MacArthur Park and later wrote an arrangement of the tune for Stan Kenton.
[2] In 1973 Barton moved to Memphis TN to become musical director for the William B. Tanner Company (recording studio, media, jingle writing).
Dee's brother, William D. "Bill" Barton, was a trombonist, pianist, arranger and band leader.