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{{short description|Artist, singer-songwriter and mayor}}
{{redirect|William Fries|the American football offensive guard|Will Fries}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=
{{
| name = C. W. McCall
| image = Bill Fries.jpg
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| death_place = [[Ouray, Colorado]], U.S.
| origin =
| genre = {{
* [[Country music|Country]] * [[outlaw country]] * [[truck-driving country]] }} | occupation = {{flatlist|
* Graphic artist * set designer * * }}
| instrument =
| years_active =
| label = {{flatlist|
* [[MGM Records|MGM]] * [[Polydor Records|Polydor]] * [[Mercury Records|Mercury]] * [[American Gramaphone]] }}
| associated_acts =
| website = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
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}}
'''William Dale Fries Jr.''' (November 15, 1928 – April 1, 2022) was an American
McCall's most successful song was "[[Convoy (song)|Convoy]]", a surprise ==Early life==
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
His family was musical;
In 1950, he got a job as a commercial artist with [[KMTV-TV|KMTV]] in [[Omaha, Nebraska]]. He worked for them for ten years, doing graphic work, lettering and [[set design]]. He also supported the local ballet and opera societies, doing work which won an award from the Omaha Artists and Art Directors Club. This attracted the attention of [[Bozell|Bozell & Jacobs]] which was a local advertising agency and they gave him a job as an [[art director]], doubling his salary.{{r|BD|NG}}
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,
==Advertising==
In 1973, while working for [[Bozell|Bozell & Jacobs]], Fries created a television advertising campaign for Old Home Bread.
==Singing==
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
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 1978, the movie ''[[Convoy (1978 film)|Convoy]]'' was released, based on the C. W. McCall song.<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> The film starred [[Kris Kristofferson]], [[Ali MacGraw]], [[Burt Young]], and [[Ernest Borgnine]] and was directed by [[Sam Peckinpah]].<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> It featured a new version of the song, written specially for the film.
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The song "Convoy" is featured in ''[[Grand Theft Auto V]]''. In 2014, ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' ranked "Convoy" No. 98 on their list of 100 Greatest Country Songs.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/100-greatest-country-songs-of-all-time-20140601/98-c-w-mccall-convoy-1975-0211083 |title=98. C.W. McCall, 'Convoy' (1975) Photo - 100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=June 1, 2014 |access-date=August 13, 2014 |archive-date=July 14, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714143610/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/100-greatest-country-songs-of-all-time-20140601/98-c-w-mccall-convoy-1975-0211083 |url-status=live }}</ref>
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=
==Politics and later life in Ouray==
[[File:Ouray CO Ouray City Hall and Walsh Library 2006 09 13.jpg|thumb|right|[[Ouray City Hall and Walsh Library|Ouray City Hall]], which was created as a replica of the [[Independence Hall]], was restored after a fund-raising campaign led by Bill Fries as mayor]]
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}}
In an interview Fries conducted on February 9, 2022, he 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|date=February 17, 2022 |access-date=February 20, 2022|archive-date=February 20, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220220155548/https://tasteofcountry.com/c-w-mccall-hospice/|url-status=live}}</ref>
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/ |
==Discography==
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|-
| rowspan="2"| 1975
| 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|
* {{small|Released: January 1975}}
* {{small|Label: [[MGM Records]]}}
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|
|-
| 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|
* {{small|Released: September 1975}}
* {{small|Label: MGM Records}}
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|-
| rowspan="2"| 1976
| style="text-align:left;"| '''''[[Wilderness (C. W. McCall album)|Wilderness]]'''''<ref>{{
* {{small|Released: 1976}}
* {{small|Label: [[Polydor Records]]}}
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==References==
{{reflist |refs=
<ref name=NG>{{citation |url=http://www.narrowgauge.org/4x4/cw_pages/html/mcwho.html |title=Tales of the Four Wheel Cowboy |date=
<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=
<ref name=Star>{{citation |url=http://www.cw-mccall.com/images/museum/starmag/star19991221(150).jpg |newspaper=The Star |date=
<ref name=RMN>[http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=RM&p_theme=rm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB4D999410879D3&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM "'McCall' Leaves Office"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008060813/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=RM&p_theme=rm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB4D999410879D3&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |date=October 8, 2012 }}, ''Rocky Mountain News'', January 14, 1992. Accessed March 25, 2008</ref>
<ref name=T>{{citation |newspaper=The Times |title=CW McCall obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cw-mccall-obituary-gd0xw9prf |date=
<ref name=NYT>{{citation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/03/arts/music/cw-mccall-dead.html
}}
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* {{IMDb name|0295588}}
* {{discogs artist|C.W. McCall}}
* {{discogs artist|name=Bill Fries}}
* [https://bestclassicbands.com/cw-mccall-obituary-convoy-bill-fries C.W. McCall obituary in Best Classic Bands]
{{C. W. McCall|state=expanded}}▼
{{authority control}}
▲{{C. W. McCall}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCall, C. W.}}
[[Category:1928 births]]
[[Category:2022 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American male singers]]▼
[[Category:20th-century mayors of places in Colorado]]
[[Category:21st-century American male singers]]
[[Category:21st-century American singer-songwriters]]
[[Category:American country singer-songwriters]]
[[Category:American male singer-songwriters]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Polydor Records artists]]▼
[[Category:MGM Records artists]]
[[Category:Mayors of places in Colorado]]
[[Category:Musicians from Iowa]]
[[Category:People from Ouray, Colorado]]
▲[[Category:Polydor Records artists]]
[[Category:Singer-songwriters from Colorado]]
[[Category:Singer-songwriters from Iowa]]
[[Category:
▲[[Category:Deaths from lung cancer]]
▲[[Category:20th-century American male singers]]
▲[[Category:21st-century American male singers]]
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