#81 IMPERIALS by The Imperials (1972)

IMPERIALS by The Imperials (1972)
Impact - R3165

cross·roads (ˈkrôsˌrōdz) noun

1. An intersection of two or more roads.

2. A point at which a crucial decision must be made that will have far-reaching consequences.

The Imperials were at a crossroads in 1972.

They stood at the intersection of music, faith, and culture. With their roots firmly planted in the world of Southern Gospel music, the Imperials had been pushing the boundaries for years. Their look…their sound…the songs they chose to sing and record…even the racial makeup of the group set them apart from the musical subculture from whence they came.

The Imperials with Elvis Presley in 1971

For the Imperials, it was also a point at which a crucial decision had to be made. A decision with far-reaching consequences, indeed. Having experienced the bright lights and allure of life with secular music stars like Elvis Presley and Jimmy Dean, the Imperials had a decision to make regarding the future direction of the group. They were at a crossroads that their founder, Jake Hess, probably never imagined.

Jake Hess was born on Christmas Eve in 1927 in Mt. Pisgah, Alabama. He was the last of twelve children born to his struggling sharecropper parents. Raised in a poor, rural community, young Jake found joy in singing Gospel Music and had big plans to start a group of his own one day. “Gospel Music” in the 1940s and ‘50s was limited to two primary expressions – the Negro Spirituals and “original rhythm and blues” heard in Black churches, and the southern quartets and “singing conventions” preferred by white audiences. The white quartets were usually comprised of four singers and a pianist. The tenor, lead and baritone singers would huddle around one microphone, while the powerful bass singer had a mic all to himself. As for the piano player, the flashier the better. These groups weren’t all that concerned with spiritual depth; there was usually a premium placed on showmanship and entertainment.

Jake Hess

Jake Hess grew up singing in a variety of such groups around the state of Alabama before landing a prestigious gig as lead singer of the Statesmen Quartet. But he still had that unfulfilled dream in the back of his mind to have a group of his very own. And in 1964, he handpicked the best singers he could find from within Southern Gospel music and formed Jake Hess and the Imperials. By the way, the “smooth” bass singer was a young Filipino named Armond Morales. Morales would spend virtually his entire adult life as an Imperial.



Hess wanted this group to be different, a cut above if you will. Not only from a musical standpoint but spiritually as well. This was a time when most Southern Gospel groups were entertainment-oriented. Not only that, but alcoholism and adultery were also rampant within the genre. Hess’s Imperials would be a unique group in this regard. Jake Hess actually came up with a “morals clause” that group members had to sign, attempting to ensure that the men would have to live what they sang. The group eventually signed with Benson Records and the record company bought their first tour bus as a signing bonus.  In 1966, original tenor singer Sherrill Nielson left the group and was replaced by a young Jim Murray who, along with Morales, would anchor the group’s trademark sound. Murray would sing tenor for the Imperials for the next twenty years.  

Jake Hess and the Imperials were becoming a household name in Christian homes around the country. They began to be known for thinking outside that traditional, Southern Gospel box…adding songs to their repertoire that other groups wouldn’t touch, and singing in venues that the other groups eschewed.

Another personnel change came when pianist Henry Slaughter was replaced by a young Italian named Joe Moscheo. This was another significant change that marked a generational shift and another move away from traditional Southern Gospel and toward a more modern approach.

At this point Jake Hess began to experience health issues, with doctors eventually advising him that “life on the road” was just too dangerous. Jake Hess said goodbye to his dream and resigned from the group he had founded. Jake Hess and the Imperials became, simply, The Imperials. In 1967, Morales, Murray and Moscheo regrouped and hired new singers, including a young man with an impeccable musical pedigree, Terry Blackwood (the son of Gospel music legend Doyle Blackwood). Terry’s Dad and uncles – the Blackwood Brothers -- had been perhaps the best known and most loved Gospel singers throughout the Forties and Fifties, and now he would have the opportunity to make his own mark.

Now things would begin to get really interesting. The group demonstrated on their first post-Hess album (1967’s New Dimensions) that they would not be bound by the traditional constraints of southern gospel. It’s been called an “almost modern sounding album.” 1968’s Now and 1969’s Love is the Thing continued a slide toward that which was “hip” and “contemporary.” The album titles alone are an indication that the times, they were a-changin.’

The Imperials with Jimmy Dean and Mike Douglas

At this point, the boys began to grow their hair out longer and started wearing loud, fashionable stage clothes that were in keeping with what was happening in the broader culture-at-large. At the same time, the group was making career connections that would result in an incredible amount of exposure, but would also eventually cause a crisis of sorts for the group. They were given the opportunity to sing back-up for Jimmy Dean on his road shows and his weekly television program. That was big. But it was nothing compared to the
opportunity to back Elvis Presley in Las Vegas, on the road, on albums, and even in a motion picture release. The Imperials’ experiences with Elvis were well documented in a video release -- He Touched Me, the Gospel Side of Elvis -- and a book by the same name by Joe Moscheo. As a result of their heavy schedule with Dean and Presley, the Imps didn’t record an album at all in 1970. They were playing regular gigs in venues like Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and Reno. For the first time, serious thought was given to the idea of “crossing over” (or “going secular” as it was more commonly known at the time).

As part of this “flirting with the mainstream,” the Imperials recorded an album in 1971 that was full of spiritually-aware pop hits. Time to Get It Together had a title that included the vernacular of the day and featured such popular non-gospel tunes as Bridge Over Troubled Water, Teach Your Children, Let It Be, and Everything Is Beautiful. They also made overtures to the Jesus Movement by recording Larry Norman’s Sweet, Sweet Song of Salvation on the album. Several songs on the record were arranged by a young Michael Omartian.

In 1972, the Imps had another personnel slot to fill. The group’s producer, Bob MacKenzie reportedly made a suggestion that they consider a young singer that MacKenzie had heard out on the West Coast. This young man had been singing with Andrae Crouch & the Disciples, another barrier-breaking group that was building bridges between traditional Black Gospel and what was being referred to as “Jesus Music.” MacKenzie suggested that this young man would add to the Imperials’ potential; that his overall impact would be very appealing. And, oh yeah…he was a Black man. Sherman Andrus joined the Imperials in 1972, completing what many consider to be the group’s greatest lineup. This move made the Imperials the first interracial Christian group America had ever seen (and one of the few interracial groups in music, period). Sherman Andrus joked that he would “boldly go where no Black man had gone before.” Armond, Jim, Terry, Sherman and Joe were trendsetters, and they would have quite a run together.

Which brings us to our featured album: the eponymous 1972 release on Impact Records. This record went even further down the mainstream road than Time to Get It Together. It featured mainstream songs by Ray Stevens, Carole King, Richard Carpenter and Kris Kristofferson...as well as a song first recorded by Stevie Wonder. Given that the record was released on a Christian label known primarily for southern gospel, it’s almost hard to see how this album, with this song lineup, even got made. Of course, the rich harmonies and pleasing musical arrangements are found in abundance here, as was the case with any 70s Imps release. But the overall tone of the record…the risk-taking that was necessary to conceive of an album like this in 1972…that was the story here as much as anything else.

The record kicks off with a feel-good Ray Stevens song titled A Brighter Day. This song sets an optimistic tone for the record, with a sentiment that was typical for the early seventies:

It’s just a matter of mind over matter
I close my eyes and say a little prayer

And I can see a brighter day
Yesterday I may be just a loner
(A brighter day)
But love is waiting just around the corner
(A brighter day)
I hear those gentle voices saying happiness is gonna come my way
And it’s gonna bring a brighter day

Next up was a Kris Kristofferson song titled Slow Down. This one used fictional characters by the names of “Albert Abernathy” and “little Sally Tremble” to bring attention to the emptiness of workaholism, fame and broken relationships. It’s a cautionary tale that encourages the listener to “slow down and live,” and “take time to understand the things you hope to win before your journey’s end.”

Song #3 on Side One would go on to be one of the most popular in the group’s vast catalog. It’s a song that they would subsequently record on two separate live albums. It’s actually a remake of an old gospel classic that had been sung in church services for years and years. It’s called Gospel Ship. Now, the Imps were not the first to record a rocked-up version of Gospel Ship (that honor went the Mylon LeFevre), but they did it best. By any measure, the song became iconic for the Imps for years to come.

Rounding out Side One is another Ray Stevens song (Can We Get to That) and a more specifically Christian track titled Didn’t He Shine. Also recorded by Dallas Holm, this is a song that offers an insightful view of Jesus, the Son of Man:

To a world of fear and darkness
Came a light as bright as day
With a song of love and words of kindness
He came to show the way

Though His face was not recorded
Nor the color of his skin
But his words rolled down upon the darkness
And touched the hearts of men

And the people called Him Jesus
He was a man for all time
Just a simple man called Jesus
But didn’t He love, didn’t He shine

Didn’t He Shine notes that Jesus’ skin color was not recorded. And Side Two opens with a song that also brings skin color into the conversation (remember, this is the Imperials’ first album with Sherman Andrus). Heaven Help Us All was popularized by Stevie Wonder and included these lyrics:

Heaven help the Black man as he struggles one more day
Heaven help the White man if he turns his back away
Heaven help the man who kicks the man who has to crawl
Heaven help us all

Next, a Carole King tune called Beautiful gets the Imps treatment, followed by the somewhat dramatic testimony song Look What You Have Done To Me.

You Should Have Come Sooner was next on the list, and is another song that was a favorite Imps tune in the early 70s. It turns up on any serious “greatest hits” compilation from the era. Like Love Song’s Welcome Back, the song encourages the prodigal to return to the “Love that never ends.” The song just works. The tone, the performance, the lyrics, the arrangement…it just works.

Where do you fly
When your dreams have kissed you goodbye
When your friends have gone and here you are alone

When there’s no place for you to hide
No one to take your side
And you feel like the only one out on your own

You go to the place where life begins
To the love that never ends
To the one whose arms are open wide
Run on inside
You should have come sooner

The album concludes with the hauntingly beautiful Invocation – a song also recorded by the Carpenters.

This self-titled album by the Imperials found them teetering on the border between Gospel and pop…with, one presumes, a decision to make. It was their most serious attempt at crossing over into secular music completely.

Of course, if you’re familiar with their history, you know that the Imperials experienced a spiritual revival within the group, stopped playing Vegas and Tahoe, and ultimately decided to recommit themselves to the Lord and to the Church. The result? They dismantled racial and musical barriers, won 4 Grammy Awards and 13 Dove Awards, and bridged the gap between the Southern Gospel world they left behind, and what later came to be known as Contemporary Christian Music.

By the way, founder Jake Hess was plagued by health issues all his life. He had suffered three heart attacks before he passed away in January of 2004. But we all owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Hess. No one could’ve predicted the impact that his group would eventually have on the Christian Music industry and, more importantly, on the Body of Christ.

 The Imperials - "You Should have Come Sooner"

Fun Facts…

The Imperials were:
• the first Gospel quartet to use four individual microphones on stage
• the first Gospel quartet to use cordless mics
• the first Gospel quartet to use a live band on stage
• the only Christian group to have a #1 song in 4 consecutive decades