Editing C. W. McCall (section)

==Musical Career==
The success of the ad campaign led Fries to embark on a commercial recording career, cloaked in the identity of the McCall character from the Old Home Bread commercials. Fries 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"/>

Fries 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>  In its style and composition, the song is a direct echo of Fries's Old Home Bread commercial songs: a first-person trucker spoken monologue, backed by a country arrangement and interspersed with a gentle choral call-and-response.  But the theme is rebellious instead of sentimental: truckers coordinating by [[CB radio]] to rebel against the new [[National Maximum Speed Law|federal speed limit of 55 mph]].  The mix of anti-authority feeling and country authenticity was immensely popular, and helped feed a nationwide craze for CB radios and trucker culture.<ref>Ligo, Joe, "The 1970s Trucking Craze Can Be Traced Back to a Regional TV Commercial for Bread," ''The Drive'', May 19, 2021</ref> 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>  Classically-trained Chip Davis, who wrote the music to the song, won 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>

A dozen C.W. 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"/>  "Classified" and "[['Round the World with the Rubber Duck]]" (a [[pirates in popular culture|pirate]]-flavored sequel to "Convoy") bubbled under the Hot 100.  The majority of McCall's hits were written by the team of Fries and Davis; only "Roses For Mama" and the low-charting "Outlaws And Lone Star Beer" were penned by outside writers.

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, with lyrics written specifically for the plot of the film.

But by the time of the movie's release, the trucking fad was waning.  In 1979, Fries retired from the music business, although he recorded a few songs in later years.  He voiced more commercials, including ads for Kern's bread featuring the actors he had made popular with Old Home.<ref>Ligo, Joe, "The 1970s Trucking Craze Can Be Traced Back to a Regional TV Commercial for Bread," ''The Drive'', May 19, 2021</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=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>

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>