About
Empire Today Jingle refers to the song used in advertisements for the flooring company Empire Today. The old advertisements often featured Elmer Lynn Hauldren, an old guy with a soft voice who was able to sell you carpet and tell you what Empire has that other carpet companies don’t. He is best known as the “Empire Carpet guy.” The company has made it’s way to most of the 48 contiguous states of the U.S.A., meaning that the jingle can be heard on national television.
Origin
The Empire jingle has had 5 different versions in the past. The first version was sung by an acapella group that Elmer Lynn Hauldren may have worked with. The verse was originally “588-2300, Empiiiiiiiiiiiiiiire!” followed by a synth bell ding. Usually following that, the Empire Carpet guy would say “Call now.” A couple years later, the jingle was re-recorded and sung by a group of girls, with the verse being “588-2300, Empiiiiire!” with a few instrument notes and a drum hit on top of each other following the verse. A few years later, the jingle was rearranged and re-recorded, this time with the verse being “588-2300, Empiiiiiiire!” followed by an electric bass note, hi hat and kick drum. The group who sang this version was an acapella group the Empire Carpet guy may have also worked with called “The Fabulous 40s.” A few years later, the jingle was re-recorded once again with a different unrelated acapella group, this time with the verse being changed to “800-588-2300, Empire Today!” followed by a MIDI fretless bass note, hi hat and kick drum. Finally, months later, since people didn’t like that version of the jingle, a new version of the jingle was recorded, featuring The Fabulous 40s again. This time, the verse has been changed to “800-588-2300, Empiiiiire!” followed by Elmer Lynn Hauldren saying “Today” and the same MIDI fretless bass note, hi hat and kick drum from last time but pitched to a higher note.
Spread
On May 15th, 2016, a Vine user known as “Jared wonago” made a meme with the jingle featuring a video of a guy dancing and falling on his back during a dance battle (YouTube embed shown below).
One of the earlier known instances of this jingle as a meme was scraped from Instagram by Me.me on January 27th, 2017, credited credited to user streetofmemes. It’s a Nut Button meme featuring the CGI replica of the Empire Carpet guy from the 2004-2015 end tag smashing the button and the text reading “WHEN YOU’RE HITTING IT FROM THE BACK & SHE TURNS AROUND & MOANS CALL 800-588-2300 EMPIRE TODAY” (shown below).
The jingle has recently been used as one of those perfectly-timed memes, where when something happens, for example either someone dabs or someone crashes into something, the bass note plays. For example, YouTuber Memers Delight posted a Fortnite dance along with the jingle with the character pointing when the last note hits, gaining over 25,000 views (shown below, left). An ear rape version of the jingle paired with the Nut Button meme posted by YouTuber Isabelle gained over 7,100 views (shown below, right).