For a number of years they toured the country and were eventually signed on to Vocalion Records (owned by ARC) in 1937 for the release of Just Like That.

His orchestra earned the label "Miracle Band of the Year" thru a series of lengthy engagements at some of the top and locations in the country.

[3] His Johnny Long Orchestra accompanied Ella Fitzgerald on her Decca recording of "Confessin' That I Love You".

He was chosen to play the President's Birthday Ball in Washington in 1942, and also that his has been the only record of "Back Up the Red, White and Blue with God," official song of the Treasury's War Bond Dept.

Their first big role was in the Abbott & Costello comedy, Hit the Ice, where Long played a romantic male lead opposite Ginny Simms.