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Glenn Miller compiled several musical arrangements before forming his first band in 1937. Jerry Jerome, Hal McIntyre, Sterling Bose, Dick McDonough and Irving Fazola were some of the musicians in the band, along with singer Kathleen Lane. The band failed to distinguish itself from the many others of the era and eventually broke up. Benny Goodman said in 1976, "In late 1937, before his band became popular, we were both playing in Dallas. Glenn was pretty dejected and came to see me. He asked, 'What do you do? How do you make it?' I said, 'I don't know, Glenn. You just stay with it.'" "A Blues Serenade", "Solo Hop", and "Moonlight on the Ganges" were some of their recordings for Columbia records.

Discouraged, Miller returned to New York. He realized that he needed to develop a unique sound, and decided to make the clarinet play a melodic line with a tenor saxophone on the same note, while three other saxophones harmonized. With this sound combination, the Miller band that became the most popular was born in 1938. He was not the first to try this style, but he was the most successful at refining it and making it key to almost his entire repertoire. After a shaky start, it made his new band a nationwide hit. Tex Beneke, Al Klink, Chummy MacGregor, Billy May, Johnny Best, Maurice Purtill, Wilbur Schwartz, Clyde Hurley, Ernie Caceres, Bobby Hackett, Ray Anthony and Hal McIntyre, among others, were some of the musicians in the band. Ray Eberle, Marion Hutton, Skip Nelson, Paula Kelly, Dorothy Claire and The Modernaires were the singers.

In September 1938, the Miller band began making recordings for the RCA Victor Bluebird subsidiary. In the spring of 1939, the band's fortunes improved with a date at the Meadowbrook ballroom and more dramatically at the Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, New York. With the Glen Island date the band began a huge rise in popularity. Time magazine in 1939 noted: "Of the twelve to 24 discs in each of today's 300,000 U. S. juke boxes, from two to six are usually Glenn Miller's." "There were record-breaking recordings, as well, such as 'Tuxedo Junction', which sold 115,000 copies in the first week. 1939's huge success culminated with the Miller band in concert at Carnegie Hall on October 6, with Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, and Fred Waring also the main attractions.

From 1939 to 1942, his band was featured three times a week during a broadcast for Chesterfield cigarettes. On February 10, 1942, RCA Victor presented Miller with the first gold record for "Chattanooga Choo-Choo". In 2004 Glenn Miller orchestra bassist Herman "Trigger" Alpert exclaimed, "Miller had America's music pulse, he knew what would please the listeners."

Although Miller had massive popularity, many jazz critics of the time had their misgivings, believing that the band's endless rehearsals and "letter-perfect playing" diminished excitement and feeling from performances. They also felt that Miller's brand of swing shifted popular music away from the "hot" jazz bands of Benny Goodman and Count Basie towards commercial novelty instrumentals and vocal numbers. "In fact, Miller was often criticized for being too -- and here comes that dreaded word term -- 'commercial'. His answer, 'I don't want a jazz band.'" Many modern jazz critics still harbor similar antipathy toward Miller. Miller himself emphasized orchestrated arrangements over improvisation, but he did leave a little room for his musicians to ad lib.