Charlie Barnet - Skyliner free for downloading

The trombone section at 1:42 is something I can't get out of my ears.

Great find, Chuck. Charlie definitely had one of the most underrated of all of the big bands,Thas some all -star lineup he had!

This was used as the theme song for a radio show on WJQS AM in Jackson, Miss., in the late '50's and early '60's, from 11 PM till 2 AM or so.  They played great music on that station, which my dad managed.

I had the pleasure of accompanying (on Drums) Charlie Barnet when he cruised with his wife on the Cunard Liner I worked on in 1963. He borrowed the bandleaders alto and we gave a concert for the ships crew featuring (of course!) Skyliner and Cherokee. He was a gent!!

Thanks so much for this. One of my favorite Barnet numbers.

The great Charlie Barnet !!

I once spoke to him on the phone when visiting my mom in San Diego in my teens. This was in 1978. I worked on a big band radio program in Atlantic City and was hoping he'd do a phone interview with us later. His name was in the phone book (he lived on Anchorage Drive, I remember that). He was as nice as could be and was rather pleased to know he was speaking to a 16-year-old fan.

The guitar player is a young Barney Kessel.  There's also a young Doc Severinson in the trumpet section but you can't see him on the video.  And..this is NOT live - it's pre-recorded!!!!!  They are just playing along with an earlier recording.

Barnet is my favorite sax soloist. Hot band, although some of the arrangements seemed to peter out at the end, like the arranger was thinking, "OK, the solos are over, let's end it and move on to the next one."

Great cut - swings like a good 'un. I first heard the Ted Heath version and loved it ever since, wonderful to hear the original - thanks! Neal Hefti (RIP) was an absolute genius, responsible for another of my all-time favourites, Splanky. (Like another poster, I'm too young to remember the big band era, but luckily my Dad introduced me to the music...)

One of my all time favourite tracks

American troops in Munich in 1945 used this as a theme song for the show "Midnight in Munich.

Charlie Barnet on the clarinet of course, however Buddy DeFranco played for him for several years as the clarinetist!

Oh just wonderful love this music happy days for me

"Skyliner" dropped out of the standard Big Band repertoire because it is just too hard to play those breaks with the brass pyramids at tempo. However, my Big Band ( the O.M.J.B.) performs it. I love the tension in the rhythm section between the bass/drums playing in "two" and the guitar playing a straight swinging "four".

The "clarinet" Charley is playing is a soprano sax.

i love this.. they were more classy back then