An accomplished guitarist, Alvino Rey learned to play several stringed instruments as a teenager growing up in Cleveland. But he got his professional start playing guitar with various dance bands, including those of Phil Spitalny, Russ Morgan, Freddy Martin, and Horace Heidt. He formed his own successful group in the late 1930s and toured extensively during the 1940s, enjoying national hits with "Deep In The Heart Of Texas," "I Said No," and "Strip Polka." Rey eventually adopted a more jazz-orientated policy, hiring top-flight musicians such as Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, and Mel Lewis; while commissioning arrangements from Billy May, Johnny Mandel, Neal Hefti, and others. By the 1960s, Rey had left the music world and drifted into television as a producer.