The Professional Work of C. W. McCall

Bill Fries, aka C.W. McCall

(b. Nov. 15, 1928)

Career Highlights

Film, Night Club, Radio & TV

1-Film, 2-Night Club, 3-Radio, 4-TV 

Billboard Chart Data 

• No. 1 Singles: 1
• Top-20 Singles: 6
• Crossover Singles: 2
• Charted Singles: 12
• Chart Years Active: (1974-1979)

Career Labesl:

• MGM Records (1974-1976)
• Polydor Records (1976-1979)

Billboard Top-20 Singles

1. Old Home Filler-Up An' Keep On-a-Truckin' Cafe -1974
2. Wolf Creek Pass, 1
3. Classified
4. Convoy*#1, 2 -1975
5. There Won't Be No Country Music (There Won't Be No Rock 'n' Roll) 1976
6. Roses for Mama -1977

*-No. 1 Chart Single

#-Biggest Chart Single

1-Crossover Single

2-Gold Single

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Convoy: The  C.W. McCall Story

C.W. McCall was born in Audubon, Iowa. In 1973, while working for the Omaha advertising firm of Bozell & Jacobs, Bill Fries created a television campaign for the Old Home Bread brand of the Metz Baking Company. The advertisements told of the adventures of truck driver C.W. McCall, his dog Sloan and of the truck stop that McCall frequented, The Old Home Café.

Bill based the character and his environment on his own upbringing in western Iowa. The commercials were very successful. So successful, that the Des Moines Register published the air times of the commercials in the daily television listings. McCall helped drive the trucker craze of the '70s with a slew of novelty tunes, few of which have aged very well

McCall is best known for his once popular single, Convoy (No. 1, 1976), which came at the peak of the CB fad in the United States. It sold over two million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1975. While Bill provided the lyrics to the song and the voice of C.W. McCall, his collaborator, Chip Davis wrote the music. Though McCall is not a one-hit wonder, Convoy has since become his signature song.

Previously, however McCall charted the song Wolf Creek Pass (No. 12, 1974), a misadventure of a truck with brake failure. Two other songs reached Billboard's top-20, including Classified (No. 13, 1975) and the sentimental song, Roses for Mama (No. 2, 1977). McCall’s recordings we released on MGM (1974 ~ 1975) and Polydor (1976 ~ 1979).

In 1978, the movie Convoy was released, which was based on the C.W. McCall song. The film starred Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Burt Young and Ernest Borgnine. It featured a new version of the song, written specially for the film.

Like most musical acts, C.W. McCall toured the country, with Bill singing the words of C.W. and the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant Boys playing the music. In reality, the Boys were Chip Davis and an eclectic mix of musicians, who spent their non-C.W. McCall time recording albums of Chip’s music. Chip was a pioneer of New Age music, and his albums, recorded under the group name of Mannheim Steamroller, were also successful. But the fact that Chip Davis was the music behind C.W. McCall is not a well-known fact.

McCall never took himself seriously, and tunes like Crispy Critters (No. 32, 1976) and "Round the World with the Rubber Duck (No. 40, 1976) will inspire a laugh at just how weird the 1970s could be. In 1986, McCall was elected mayor of the town of Ouray, Colorado, ultimately serving for six years. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Researched, compiled and written by  Richard Bell, Roots of Country Music, Mar. 12, 2012.