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{{short description|Artist, singer-songwriter and mayor}}
{{redirect|William Fries|the American football offensive guard|Will Fries}}
{{
{{infobox musical artist
| name = C. W. McCall
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==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; Bill Sr., a farm equipment factory foreman by day, performed with his two brothers in '' The Fries Brothers Band''{{r|T}} and played the violin while Margaret played the piano and the two played [[ragtime]] together at dances. Bill Sr. frequently 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, but 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}}
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==Advertising==
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 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=
==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=
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==
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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/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401224550/https://bestclassicbands.com/cw-mccall-obituary-convoy-bill-fries/ |archive-date=April 1, 2022 |access-date=
==Discography==
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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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