After studying at Juilliard, Kraus spent his early musical career at radio station WNEW, working many series before enlisting in the United States Army in 1941. While in the service, he performed in Irving Berlin's revue This Is the Army. Post-war, Kraus returned to New York, working commercials and television (heard on Studio One, The Ed Sullivan Show, Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, and The Jackie Gleason Show). In recordings, he backed Buddy Holly, Billie Holliday, Perry Como, Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Rich, The Village People (on "Macho Man"), Bette Midler, and in the bands of Doc Severinsen, Quincy Jones, and Don Sebesky. He played the güiro in the opening of Ben E. King's 1961 single "Stand By Me." On his own, Kraus demonstrated his versatility in his 1957 solo album The Percussive Phi