generic Country Singer C.W. McCall of ‘Convoy’ Fame Dies at 93
C.W. McCall, the baritone country singer best known for his CB-inspired 1976 chart-topping hit “Convoy” has died at age 93. The death of the performer born Bill Fries — who recorded under the McCall moniker — was confirmed by his son, Bill Fries III; the singer announced in February that he was receiving cancer treatment in hospice.
Best known for his outlaw country anthems, Audubon, Iowa-bred Fries rose to musical prominence through his day job as a creative director at the Bozell & Jacobs advertising agency in Omaha, where in 1973 he wrote a Clio award-winning TV campaign for Old Home Bread. The jingle told the story of trucker C.W. McCall, who hauled the goods from the Metz Baking Company in his 18-wheeler as he romanced a waitress named Mavis, who worked at the Old Home Filler-Up an’ Keep on a-Truckin’ Cafe in Pisgah, Iowa.
More from Billboard
Halsey Had to Leave 2022 Grammy Awards Early, But Not Before Catching Pals BTS
Memphis Street to be Named For Last Surviving Member of Bar-Kays
The ads clicked and bread sales went up as fans became fascinated by the fictional couple, prompting Fries to spin them off into a modestly selling promotional single for Metz called “Old Home Filler-Up an’ Keep On A-Truckin’ Cafe.” The song was written by Fries and Bozell’s in-house jingle writer, Chip Davis, who would go on to found Mannheim Streamroller and collaborate with Fries on a number of other songs over the next half-decade. Soon enough, MGM Records in Nashville got interested and Fries cooked up his iconic truck life story song, “Convoy,” which was larded with a string of CB radio buzzwords.
“Ah, breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck/ You gotta copy on me, Pig Pen, c’mon?/ Ah, yeah, 10-4, Pig Pen, fer shure, fer shure/ By golly, it’s clean clear to Flag Town, c’mon/ Yeah, that’s a big 10-4 there, Pig Pen/ Yeah, we definitely got the front door, good buddy/ Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy,” Fries talk-sings in the intro of the song, which balances his deep, froggy vocals with a bright chorus of female voices chirping, “‘Cause we got a little ol’ convoy/ Rockin’ through the night/ Yeah, we got a little ol’ convoy/ Ain’t she a beautiful sight?/ Come on and join our convoy/ Ain’t nothin’ gonna get in our way/ We gonna roll this truckin’ convoy/ ‘Cross the USA.”
The song rose to No. 1 on the Billboard pop and country charts in 1975-76 at a time when CB radios were gaining wider cultural prominence, popping up in consumer cars as well as in the films White Line Fever (1975) and Burt Reynolds/Sally Field smash comedy Smokey and the Bandit (1977). The were also front-and-center in a big-screen spin-off of Fries’ song, the 1978 Sam Pekinpah-directed film, also Convoy, which starred country singer/actor Kris Kristofferson as a trucker trying to pull together a nationwide convoy to outwit a cop played by Ernest Borgnine; Fries re-recorded some of the original’s lyrics to more closely follow the movie’s plot.
Under his McCall stage name Fries would score a handful of other charting country hits before stepping away form his performing career by the late 1970s after releasing 9 studio albums, beginning with his 1975 debut, Wolf Creek Pass, through his final album of originals, 1979’s C.W. McCall & Co. Among his other memorable songs were the 1976 environmental anthem “There Won’t Be No Country Music (There Won’t Be No Rock ‘n’ Roll),” the emotional 1977 ballad “Roses for Mama,” as well “Four Wheel Cowboy” (1976) and 1978’s “Outlaws and Lone Star Beer.”
Billie Dale Fries was born on Nov. 15, 1928 in Audubon, Iowa and spent one year at the University of Iowa before returning home to launch a sign-painting business. Following his retirement from music, Fries served as mayor of Ouray, Colorado from 1986-1992.
Listen to “Convoy” below.
