One of the great arrangers of the Big Band era, Sicilian-born Peter Rugolo was five years old when his family moved to Santa Rosa, California. He attended San Francisco College and in the 1930's studied composition under the classical composer Darius Milhaud. After military service in World War II, he joined Stan Kenton and His Orchestra, where he contributed numerous distinctive arrangements and compositions. He had a critical influence on the progressive image of the band, which sounded unlike any other in the business. Rugolo and Kenton formed a very close personal friendship, akin to that of Duke Ellington and his arranger Billy Strayhorn.

In 1949, Pete became musical director at Capitol records , where he produced recording sessions with big name jazz stars, including Miles Davis (he came up with the title of Davis's ground-breaking album "The Birth of the Cool"), Charlie Parker, Nat 'King' Cole and Peggy Lee. He continued a part-time collaboration with Kenton and also arranged for Kenton's former star vocalist June Christy (her "Something Cool" album).

The 1950's were a busy decade for Rugolo. He briefly fronted his own band in 1954, featuring Patti Page as his vocalist. He also had contractual affiliations first with Columbia Records and then with Mercury Records, writing, among others, for Sarah Vaughan. By that time, he had branched out into musical genres other than jazz. At MGM, he was employed as a staff composer/arranger on a number of musicals, including Öp Beni (1953) and Cennet bekçileri (1953). From there he went on to prolific television work, writing the jazzy theme scores for popular crime shows like Kaçak (1963) and The Outsider (1968), as well as westerns (Alias Smith and Jones (1971)) and numerous TV movies. He was nominated for six Emmy Awards, of which he won three. Retiring in 1985, Rugolo was honoured in 1993 by receiving the Golden Score Award from the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers.