C. W. McCall: Difference between revisions

{{Use mdy dates|date=JanuaryMay 20192024}}

{{Infoboxinfobox musical artist

| genre = {{hlistflatlist|
* [[Country music|Country]]|
* [[outlaw country]]|
* [[truck-driving country]]
}}

| occupation = {{flatlist|
* Graphic artist and
* set designer,
* Artart director,
* Singersinger-songwriter

| years_active = 1944–20031944–2022

| label = {{flatlist|
* [[MGM Records|MGM]],
* [[Polydor Records|Polydor]],
* [[Mercury Records|Mercury]],
* [[American Gramaphone]]

'''William Dale Fries Jr.''' (November 15, 1928 – April 1, 2022) was an American advertising executive and spoken word[[commercial artist]] who won several [[Clio Awards]] for his advertising campaigns. He was also a musician and is best known for his character '''C. W. McCall''', a [[truck-driving country]] singer that he originally created for a series of bread commercials;. Fries laterperformed assumed the role ofas McCall forin a series of [[outlaw country|outlaw]] albums and songs in the 1970s, in collaboration with co-worker (and [[MannheimChip SteamrollerDavis]] founder)who also founded [[ChipMannheim DavisSteamroller]].

McCall's most successful song was "[[Convoy (song)|Convoy]]", a surprise pop-crossover hit in 1975, reaching number 1one on the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] chart and number 2two in the British[[UK chartsSingles Chart]] in March 1976. After Friesa wassuccessful elected mayorspell of touring, Fries retired to [[Ouray, Colorado]], andwhere servedhe inwas thatelected positionas mayor, serving from 1986 to 1992. The "Convoy" song became an anthem for the [[Freedom Convoy]] protests in 2022 and Fries enjoyed this revival before he died at the age of 93.

McCall was born '''Billie Dale Fries'''<ref name=wapobit>{{Cite news |title=Bill Fries, who had No. 1 hit as C.W. McCall with 'Convoy,' dies at 93 |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/04/01/country-music-performer-cw-mccall-dies/ |access-date=April 2, 2022-04-02 |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=April 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220402180833/https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/04/01/country-music-performer-cw-mccall-dies/ |url-status=live }}</ref> on November 15, 1928, in [[Audubon, Iowa]], the son of William Dale "Billie" Fries Sr. and Margaret Fries.<ref name="LarkinCountry">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Who's Who of Country Music]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1993|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-726-6|page=247}}</ref> He later legally changed his name to '''William Dale Fries, Jr.'''<ref name=wapobit/> His father was also called Billie and so he was the [[Suffix_(name)#Generational_titles|junior]]. One of his sons is now Bill Fries III.{{r|NYT}}

His family was musical; asBill hisSr., fathera farm equipment factory foreman by day, performed with his two brothers in '' The Fries Brothers Band'', though his day job was as a foreman at a factory for farm equipment.{{r|T}} His fatherand played the violin while his mother, Margaret, played the piano and the two played [[ragtime]] together at dances. Bill TheirSr. sonfrequently hauled prefabricated swine barns to customers, which introduced Bill Jr. to the world of trucking.<ref name=1970scraze/> Bill Jr. first performed at the age of three in a local talent contest, singing "[[She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain|Coming ' Round the Mountain]]" while his mother played the piano. He studied music at school, playing the [[clarinet]] and the music of [[John Philip Sousa]] and became the [[Drum major (marching band)|drum major]] for the school's [[marching band]]. As a child, he enjoyed listening to [[country music]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oldies.com/artist-view/CW-McCall.html|title=C.W. McCall|website=Oldies.com|access-date=May 8, 2018|archive-date=May 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180509012459/https://www.oldies.com/artist-view/CW-McCall.html|url-status=live}}</ref> but he was even more interested in art, having started copying the cartoon characters of [[Walt Disney]] as a child. He went to the Fine Arts School at the [[University of Iowa]] where he majored in [[commercial art]] and also performed in the university's symphony orchestra., Butbut he had to leave the university after one year as he could not afford to compete with the many demobbed soldiers who were going through college on the [[GI Bill of Rights]].{{r|BD|NG}} He then returned to Audubon to work as a [[signwriter]].{{r|NYT}}

He married Rena Bonnema on February 15, 1952; the two remained married for 70 years until his death.<ref name=hospice/> At the time of his death he had three children, four grandchildren, foursix great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.<ref name=wapobit/> His hobbies included [[model railroading]] and working on his old [[Willys MB|military jeep]].{{r|AA}}

In 1973, while working for [[Bozell|Bozell & Jacobs]], Fries created a television advertising campaign for Old Home Bread. The bread was trucked across the Midwest from the Metz Baking Company's plant in [[Sioux City, Iowa]]. As the big [[semi-trailer truck]]s carrying the [[Old Home Bread]] logo were a familiar sight on the highway, this suggested a trucking theme. The advertisements featured deliveries of the bread to the Old Home café, whose name expanded to become the "Old Home Filler-Up an' Keep on a-Truckin' Café". Its waitress was named Mavis (played by Jean McBride Capps) after a real waitress at the White Spot café in Audubon where Fries grew up. Her role was to flirt with the truck driver who was named C. W. McCall (played by Jim Finlayson).<ref name=1970scraze>{{Cite web |last=Ligo |first=Joe |date=May 19, 2021 |title=The 1970s Trucking Craze Can Be Traced Back to a Regional TV Commercial for Bread |url=https://www.thedrive.com/news/40634/the-1970s-trucking-craze-can-be-traced-back-to-a-regional-tv-commercial-for-bread |access-date=December 12, 2023 |website=The Drive |language=en}}</ref> The name [[McCall]] was inspired by ''[[McCall's]]'' magazine, which Fries had on his desk at the time. A [[James Garner]] movie, ''[[Cash McCall]]'', was also an influence. To complete the name, Fries added initials, shown embroidered on the trucker's shirt, and chose "C. W." for [[country and western]].<ref name=AA>{{citation |pages=79–81 |title=The All-American Truck Stop Cookbook |year=2002 |isbn=9781418557829 |publisher=Thomas Nelson}}</ref>

The commercial won a [[Clio Award]] and its success led to other trucking songs such as "[[Wolf Creek Pass (album)|Wolf Creek Pass]]" and "[[Black Bear Road]]".<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> Fries wrote the [[lyrics]] and sang while [[Chip Davis]], who wrote [[jingle]]s at Bozell & Jacobs, wrote the music. Classically-trained Davis went on to create [[Mannheim Steamroller]] andwould win Country Music Writer of the Year in 1976 for his work with McCall, despite not liking the genre; the success allowed him to launch his instrumental project [[Mannheim Steamroller]], which became particularly well-known for its [[Christmas music|Christmas records]].<ref>{{Cite book |author1=Michael L. LaBlanc |author2=Gale Research Inc |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/20156945 |title=Contemporary musicians : profiles of the people in music |date=1989 |publisher=Gale Research |isbn=0-8103-2211-0 |location=Detroit, Mich. |oclc=20156945}}</ref>

McCall is best known for the 1976 No. 1 hit song, "[[Convoy (song)|Convoy]]" which was inspired by his own experience of driving in a growing group of vehicles out of Denver.<ref name="LarkinCountry"/><ref name=TS>{{citation |page=244 |title=Crashed the Gate Doing Ninety-Eight |author=Tim Scherrer |date=May 7, 2019 |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=9780359644629}}</ref> Its theme of using [[CB radio]] to rebel against the new [[National Maximum Speed Law|federal speed limit of 55 mph]] was popular and topical so the single sold over two million copies and was awarded a [[music recording sales certification|gold disc]] by the [[RIAA]] in December 1975.<ref name="The Book of Golden Discs">{{cite book |first=Joseph |last=Murrells |year=1978 |title=The Book of Golden Discs |edition=2nd |publisher=Barrie and Jenkins Ltd |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/361 361] |isbn=0-214-20512-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/361 }}</ref> Though McCall is not a [[one-hit wonder]], "Convoy" went on to become his [[signature song]]. McCall first charted the song "Wolf Creek Pass", which reached No. 40 on the U.S. pop top 40 in 1975. Two other songs reached the [[Billboard Hot 100]], "Old Home Filler-Up an' Keep on a-Truckin' Cafe", as well as the environmentally-oriented "There Won't Be No Country Music (There Won't Be No Rock 'n' Roll)".<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> "Classified" and "[['Round the World with the Rubber Duck]]" (a [[pirates in popular culture|pirate]]-flavored sequel to "Convoy") bubbled under the Hot 100. A dozen McCall songs appeared on ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]''{{'}}s [[Hot Country Songs|Hot Country Singles]] chart, including the sentimental "[[Roses for Mama (song)|Roses for Mama]]" (1977).<ref name="LarkinCountry"/>

In addition to the "original six" McCall albums released between 1975 and 1979, two rare singles exist. "Kidnap America" was a politically/socially-conscious track released in 1980 during the [[Iran hostage crisis]], while "Pine Tar Wars" referred to [[Pine Tar Game|an event that actually happened]] in a [[New York Yankees]]–[[Kansas City Royals]] baseball game during 1983 (a dispute concerning the application of a large quantity of pine tar to a baseball bat used by [[George Brett (baseball)|George Brett]], one of the Royals' players).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bondy |first=Filip |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j7krCgAAQBAJ&dq=Pine+Tar+Wars+mccall&pg=PA178 |title=The Pine Tar Game: The Kansas City Royals, the New York Yankees, and Baseball's Most Absurd and Entertaining Controversy |date=2015-07-July 21, 2015 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4767-7717-7 |language=en |access-date=April 9, 2022 |archive-date=April 9, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409175505/https://books.google.com/books?id=j7krCgAAQBAJ&dq=Pine+Tar+Wars+mccall&pg=PA178 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Fries and his family vacationed in [[Ouray, Colorado]], during the 1960s. They then bought a [[summer home]] there after the financial success of "Convoy". When Fries stopped touring, he retired to Ouray with his family. In 1986, Fries was elected mayor of the town and served three terms of two years each. His main achievement as mayor was to restore the historic city hall, which had burnt down in 1950. Another major project was the ''San Juan Odyssey''. This was an audiovisual exhibition which had originally been a slide show at [[Wright's Opera House]]. C. W. McCall had provided the narration for this in 1979 and it was shown to hundreds of thousands of visitors until the show closed in 1996. He then revised and digitized the production so that it could be shown in modern formats such as DVD.{{r|BD|RMN|Star}}

Fries died on April 1, 2022, at age 93, from complications of cancer.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brodsky |first1=Greg |date=April 2022 |title=C.W. McCall, Who Had a #1 Novelty Hit, 'Convoy,' During CB Craze, Dies |url=https://bestclassicbands.com/cw-mccall-obituary-convoy-bill-fries/ |website=Best Classic Bands |date=April 2022 |accessurl-datestatus=1 April 2022 |archive-date=April 1, 2022live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401224550/https://bestclassicbands.com/cw-mccall-obituary-convoy-bill-fries/ |urlarchive-statusdate=liveApril }}</ref> In an interview he conducted on February 9 while in palliative hospice care1, he2022 gave his blessing for the use of his signature song "Convoy" for the [[Freedom Convoy]] protests in Canada, with Taste of Country noting that he was "energized and enthusiastic" about the revival of interest in the song and its message.<ref name=hospice>{{Cite web|url=https://tasteofcountry.com/c-w-mccall-hospice/|title='Convoy' Singer C.W. McCall Is in Hospice|access-date=FebruaryApril 201, 2022 |archive-datewebsite=FebruaryBest 20,Classic 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220220155548/https://tasteofcountry.com/c-w-mccall-hospice/|url-status=liveBands}}</ref>

| style="text-align:left;"| '''''[[Wolf Creek Pass (album)|Wolf Creek Pass]]'''''<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1975/top-country-albums|title=Top Country Albums – Year-End 1975|magazine=Billboard|accessdateaccess-date=June 5, 2021|archive-date=April 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426010045/https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1975/top-country-albums|url-status=live}}</ref>

| style="text-align:left;"| '''''[[Black Bear Road (album)|Black Bear Road]]'''''<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1976/top-country-albums|title=Top Country Albums – Year-End 1976|magazine=Billboard|accessdateaccess-date=July 19, 2021|archive-date=June 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603201434/https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1976/top-country-albums|url-status=live}}</ref>

| style="text-align:left;"| '''''[[Wilderness (C. W. McCall album)|Wilderness]]'''''<ref>{{AllMusicCite web|classurl=https://www.allmusic.com/album/wilderness-mw0000890221|idtitle=r123058C.W. McCall - Wilderness Album Reviews, Songs & More|website=[[AllMusic]]|pure_urlaccess-date=yesAugust 8, 2023}}</ref>

<ref name=NG>{{citation |url=http://www.narrowgauge.org/4x4/cw_pages/html/mcwho.html |title=Tales of the Four Wheel Cowboy |date=17 November 17, 2010 |author=Miles Lumbard |access-date=April 7, 2022 |archive-date=February 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210218062431/http://www.narrowgauge.org/4x4/cw_pages/html/mcwho.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name=BD>{{citation |url=http://thebigfootdiaries.blogspot.com/2011/10/from-iowa-to-ouray-life-and-times-of-cw.html |title=From Iowa to Ouray: The Life of C.W. McCall |date=5 October 5, 2011 |author=T Church |work=The Bigfoot Diaries |access-date=April 7, 2022 |archive-date=April 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408125335/http://thebigfootdiaries.blogspot.com/2011/10/from-iowa-to-ouray-life-and-times-of-cw.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name=Star>{{citation |url=http://www.cw-mccall.com/images/museum/starmag/star19991221(150).jpg |newspaper=The Star |date=31 December 31, 1999 |author=William Heller |title=10-4 Rubber Duck! |access-date=April 8, 2022 |archive-date=December 25, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061225081224/http://www.cw-mccall.com/images/museum/starmag/star19991221(150).jpg |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name=T>{{citation |newspaper=The Times |title=CW McCall obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cw-mccall-obituary-gd0xw9prf |date=7 April 7, 2022 |access-date=April 9, 2022 |archive-date=April 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407153559/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cw-mccall-obituary-gd0xw9prf |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name=NYT>{{citation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/03/arts/music/cw-mccall-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1 |newspaper=New York Times |title=Bill Fries, Singer Known for 1970s Trucking Ballad ‘Convoy'Convoy,’' Dies at 93 |date=3 April 3, 2022 |author=Michael Levenson}}</ref>

* {{discogs artist|name=Bill Fries}} as Bill Fries

[[Category:2022 deaths]]

[[Category:PeopleDeaths from Audubon,lung Iowacancer in Colorado]]

[[Category:DeathsUniversity fromof cancerIowa in Coloradoalumni]]