The Door of Opportunity

One major event for the Imperials occurred while Roger Wiles was still with us. Besides the television exposure we were getting with Jimmy Dean, and the work with Elvis, we got a chance to do something totally different for us.  Jimmy was a regular on the Daniel Boone show, starring Fess Parker. It was a weekly hour-long show and Jimmy was almost a regular on that show. Because we were working with him, he got wind that they were going to cut a new version of the theme song intro to the show. He recommended the Imperials for that opening. We were offered the job and we readily accepted.  

One hot summer morning we drove up to the studio in Hollywood where the show was recorded and as we walked in, the huge room was completely empty except for a giant screen before us. We had the vocal chart in front of us. We met the producer/director and were told what we needed to do. The intro to the show was thrown on the giant screen. We had to watch our producer and begin singing when he directed us. At a certain point at the beginning of the show, when Fess Parker’s image came on the screen, we began singing, “Daniel Boone was a man, what a big man, with an eye like an eagle and as tall as a mountain was he”. There were spots in that video intro where we were out but our intros and outros had to be perfect to make that video come alive.  If you go to YouTube and type in Daniel Boone theme song, you can hear the Imperials sing that intro. That was a day I won’t ever forget. Doors opened for us that I never dreamed possible. Always be ready and prepared for you never know when that door of opportunity will open for you.