Before scoring a success with “Convoy,” a CB radio-inspired homage to rogue truckers, Mr. Fries, who went by the stage name C.W. McCall, was an ad executive.
Bill Fries, the deep-voiced country music star known as C.W. McCall, died on Friday at his home in Ouray, Colo., after turning an advertising campaign for an Iowa bread company into the renegade trucker song “Convoy,” which reached No. 1 on the charts in 1976 and spawned a Sam Peckinpah film. When he died, he was 93 years old.
Bill Fries III, his son, confirmed his death, saying his father had been in hospice care for roughly six months.
In the 1970s, Mr. Fries was operating as an ad executive at Bozell & Jacobs in Omaha when he helped create a series of tv commercials for Metz Baking Corporation about a trucker titled “ C.W. McCall hauling Old Home bread in an eighteen-wheeler and a gingival waitress named Mavis at the Old Home Filler-Up an’ Keep On A-Truckin’ Cafe.
The ads, which described the narrative of a diesel-scented romance between Mavis and C.W., who spoke in a strong twang spoken by Mr. Fries, with the phrase “Old Home is excellent buns,” was a huge hit and helped Old Home bread sales skyrocket.
“It was just amazing,” Mr. Fries once told Bozell. “Fan clubs sprouted, and people dialed TV and radio stations to learn when the commercials would appear.” The ads were named the nation’s best overall tv ads campaign by the Clio Awards in 1974.
Mr. Fries told The Omaha World-Herald in 2001, “I could see the shock and dread on all those New York advertising execs’ faces when I won the award. “I’ll bet y’all never believed something this fantastic could come out of Omaha,” I recall saying.
According to Bozell, Mr. Fries assisted in the production of “Old Home Filler-Up an’ Keep On A-Truckin’ Cafe,” a promotional record for Metz Baking Company that sold roughly 30,000 copies. MGM Records in Nashville contacted me soon after.
Mr. Fries, who had a record deal with MGM, generated a cultural sensation with “Convoy,” a tribute to renegade truckers going across the country, penned with Chip Davis, who had also composed the music for the Old Home bread ads and went on to found the Christmas music group Mannheim Steamroller.
The song chronicles the story of truckers Rubber Duck and Pig Pen, who are “puttin’ the hammer down” as they ignore speed restrictions, industry norms, and law enforcement agents, who are referred to as “bears” and “smokies” on CB radio. They end up guiding 1,000 trucks and “11 longhaired pals of Jesus in a chartreuse microbus” on their journey.
Originally intended as a filler track for an album, “Convoy” capitalized on the growing popularity of trucker culture and CB radio, which truckers used to chat during long, lonely hours on the road. It was part of a wave of trucking-themed country songs that included Joe Stampley’s “Roll On Big Mama” and Little Feat’s “Willin’.”
According to The World-Herald, “Convoy” spent 6 weeks at the top of the country charts and a week at the top of the pop charts. According to Bozell, more than 20 million copies of the record have been sold. Mr. Peckinpah adapted the song into a film, “Convoy,” starring Kris Kristofferson as Rubber Duck, in 1978.
“It went much farther than I could have ever dreamed,” Mr. Fries told The World-Herald. “Over the years, people have written stories on ‘Convoy’ and the ‘Old Home Filler-Up an’ Keep On A-Truckin’ Cafe,’ and I have a notebook full of them.”
Billie Dale Fries was born on November 15, 1928, in Audubon, Iowa, and later changed his name to William Dale Fries Jr. Billie Fries, his father, worked as a superintendent at a farm-equipment business that made hog pens. Margaret Fries, his mother, was a stay-at-home mom.
Mr. Fries went to the University of Iowa for a year after graduating from high school, then returned to Audubon and started a key indicator business.
He worked as an art director for the NBC affiliate in Omaha in the late 1940s, which led to a career in advertising and a position with Bozell & Jacobs.
He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Rena Fries, two more children, Mark Fries and Nancy Fries, four grandsons, six great-grandchildren, and a great-great-grandson, in addition to his son, Bill Fries III.
Mr. Fries says he received the concept for “Convoy” while listening to a CB radio conversation in his Jeep.
He informed Mr. Davis, “It seems like there’s a war going on out there.” “It could be a good album idea.”
According to his son, Mr. Fries retired to Ouray, a place roughly 300 miles southwest of Denver, in 1981, after releasing nine CDs. According to his son, he was elected governor in 1986 and served until 1992.
Mr. Fries said the tremendous popularity of “Convoy” was a source of pride for him even after his country music career was finished.
He told The World-Herald, “It’s one of those things that can only happen in America.” “The CBS have all vanished into the background.” Most young people have never heard of CBS or truck convoys, although it was all the rage at the time. That was a unique experience.”
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