Imboden began his adolescent career in various surf bands, and then achieved professional status in a high school band called The Other Half. The band performed at venues ranging from sock hops to Hollywood's venerable Teenage Fair, where Imboden said their popularity "clogged the whole entrance." Out of Newport Harbor High School, Imboden co-founded
Honk in 1970. After recording some
demo songs, the band's first album was the soundtrack for the surf movie
Five Summer Stories, crediting Imboden as composer, producer, drummer, harmonica player, and vocalist. Imboden established a career trend, ultimately lasting through to Chicago, of occasionally being featured on harmonica. The song "Pipeline Sequence" reached No. 1 on Hawai'i radio. Being a member of Honk provided Imboden with formative future-career experience as the band honed their studio recording skills, their touring skills, and innumerable industry contacts. They worked with bands which would eventually serve as Imboden's future professional base by touring with
Loggins and Messina,
Jackson Browne, and
The Beach Boys—and by opening
Chicago's concerts. Honk went on hiatus from 1976 to 1986, when they established a tradition of periodic reunion concerts in their original home area of
Southern California, as band members' schedules permit. From 1977 to 1986, Imboden became a full-time recording and touring member of the Kenny Loggins Band, and then would do part-time work with them until 1989, for a total of 12 years of collaboration. During his full-time tenure there, he composed and performed the drum set arrangements for popular 1980s motion picture soundtracks for
Caddyshack and
Footloose. From the end of his full-time duration with
Kenny Loggins in 1986 until 1989, Imboden's career became a full-time composite of various part-time
session recordings and live performances with various groups. His consistent work throughout that entire duration included part-time work with Kenny Loggins, stage support for
Al Jarreau, and
Chaka Khan. In 1986, he performed drum-set overdub sessions for Neil Diamond's
Headed for the Future album. This provided a venue for Imboden's studio session collaboration with then-member of Chicago,
Bill Champlin. In 1988, he was a studio session player with former member of Chicago, bassist/lead vocalist
Peter Cetera on the latter's solo album
One More Story. In 1990, his career was reshaped by joining the multi-platinum
Chicago. With the departure of founding drummer
Danny Seraphine, Imboden joined the band as the full-time drummer in time for the band's 1991 release titled
Twenty 1. As an integral part of Chicago for the latter half of the band's -year total career, Imboden would contribute to twelve Chicago records, and to tours alongside
The Beach Boys,
Earth, Wind, & Fire, and
The Doobie Brothers. Since 2012, the drum chair has been occupied by Chicago's newest full-time member, veteran
auxiliary percussionist
Walfredo Reyes, Jr. ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:120 bottom:60 top:15 right:0 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1970 till:08/31/2020 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom ScaleMajor = increment:3 start:1970 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1970 Colors = id:drumset value:green legend:Drum_set id:parttimedrum value:yellowgreen legend:Parttime_Drumset id:percussion value:orange legend:Auxiliary_percussion id:drumperc value:blue legend:DrumsetAndAux id:audio value:red legend:Audio_album id:video value:purple legend:Video_album BarData = bar:Honk text:Honk bar:Kenny text:Kenny Loggins bar:Chicago text:Chicago bar:Jarreau text:Al Jarreau bar:Chaka text:Chaka Khan bar:Firefall text:Firefall bar:Iain text:Iain Matthews bar:none text: PlotData= width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:Honk from:01/01/1970 till:12/31/1975 color:drumset bar:Iain from:01/01/1976 till:12/31/1977 color:drumset bar:Firefall from:01/01/1981 till:12/31/1982 color:drumset bar:Honk from:01/01/1985 till:end color:parttimedrum bar:Chaka from:01/01/1986 till:12/31/1989 color:parttimedrum bar:Jarreau from:01/01/1986 till:12/31/1989 color:parttimedrum bar:Kenny from:01/01/1977 till:12/31/1985 color:drumset bar:Kenny from:01/01/1986 till:12/31/1989 color:parttimedrum bar:Chicago from:01/01/1990 till:01/17/2018 color:drumset bar:Kenny from:01/17/2018 till:end color:drumset LineData= at:01/01/1972 color:audio layer:back at:06/01/1972 color:video layer:back at:01/01/1979 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/1984 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/1986 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/1987 color:audio layer:back at:06/01/1987 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/1989 color:video layer:back at:01/01/1990 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/1991 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/1992 color:video layer:back at:01/01/1994 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/1995 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/1997 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/1998 color:audio layer:back at:05/01/1998 color:audio layer:back at:09/01/1998 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/1999 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/2000 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/2002 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/2003 color:audio layer:back at:05/01/2003 color:audio layer:back at:09/01/2003 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/2007 color:video layer:back at:01/01/2008 color:audio layer:back at:01/01/2011 color:audio layer:back ==Discography==