During World War II, Malvin performed with Glenn Miller as part of The Crew Chiefs. Recordings of his performances with Glenn Miller and the Army Air Force Band were released as V-Discs.
After World War II and Glenn Miller's death, Malvin became heavily immersed in the popular music of the 1940s and 1950s, being involved in everything from children's music, to the beginnings of rock and roll, to jingles for commercials.[2] In the late 1950s he became involved in television as the music arranger for The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and he contributed to Jimmy Dorsey's final recording sessions, including the #2 hit "So Rare". He later worked with "The Carol Burnett Show" doing special musical material[3] for which he won two Emmy Awards;[4] one for a parody of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies. The Broadway musical, "Sugar Babies", for which Malvin received a Tony nomination,[1] was inspired by his composition "Let Me Be Your Sugar Baby". This song also inspired the name for the iconic Sugar Babiescandy that was originally developed in 1935.[5]