Song:Convoy
Album:Trucker's Jukebox
Trucker songs have always been a big part of the country music landscape. Guys like Dave Dudley and Red Sovine built long careers out of trucker songs. The 1975 number one hit Convoy may have killed that market. The song was so popular that Sam Peckinpah turned it into a 1978 film. And though it is perceived as a novelty song, there are serious underlying issues in Convoy. The song and the C.W. McCall character were created by ad exec William Fries. He was born Nov. 15, 1928 in Audubon, IA. He was interested in music but was more interested in graphic arts and graduated with a degree in Fine Arts from the University Of Iowa. He moved to Omaha to be art director at a TV station and then the ad agency Bozell & Jacobs. He created the C.W. McCall character for a 1973 ad campaign for Metz Baking Company. The radio ads featured trucker C.W. McCall played by Jim Finlayson hanging around at a diner. Fries won a 1974 Clio Award and the music in the ads went over so well that Fries thought he might be able to make some records out of C.W. McCall. so he asked agency jingle writer Chip Davis to write some songs and they recorded the album Wolf Creek Pass. Fries handled the vocals. He didn't sing. He talked. I wouldn't call it rapping. It's similar to talking blues. Three top 20 country music hits earned Fries a contract with MGM Records. Convoy is from the album Bear Creek Road and it topped the Country Singles chart and the Billboard Hot 100. The song was considered a goofy novelty song though it protested government regulation of truckers. Chip Davis went on to be the leader of Manheim Steamroller. Fries recorded five albums on MGM/Polydor and was doing okay on the country charts. And of course Sam Peckinpah turned convoy into a 1978 film. But Fries quit the music business and became mayor of Ouray, CO in 1986. An attempted return to music in 1990 was unsuccessful. I think Convoy made Fries a lot of money. There are comp CDs of his recordings. But the CDs are short and I think most folks will only be interested in Convoy. So this Time Life various artists comp of trucker songs will do the job. You can play it in your rig while you're on the CB. Here's C.W. McCall performing Convoy on The Mike Douglas Show 1976.
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