William Dale Fries Jr, better known as C.W. McCall, has died at age 93. McCall was best known for the 1975 hit ‘Convoy’.
‘Convoy’ was McCall’s only international hit reaching number one in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and number two in the UK.
In the USA McCall had nine Top 40 Country hits and reached number 40 on the pop chart prior to ‘Convoy’ with ‘Wolf Creek Pass’ in 1974.
Fries married Rena Bonnema in 1952. They celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary just six weeks ago on 15 February.
In 1973 Fries was a creative director for an advertising agency in Nebraska. He created the character C.W. McCall for a television commercial for Old Home Bread for the Metz Baking Company. Fries wrote the lyric for what became a series of television commercials featuring C.W. McCall. For Old Home Bread.
In 1978, a movie based on his song ‘Convoy’ was made starring Kris Kristofferson, Ernest Borgnine, and Ali MacGraw.
In 1986 Billie Fries was elected Mayor of Ouray, Colorado where he served for six years.
As C.W. McCall, Fries recorded six albums in the 1970s. He revamped his songs for ‘The Real McCall: An American Storyteller’ in 1990. His final album ‘American Spirit’ was released in 2003. It was a collaboration with Mannheim Streamroller, featuring Chip Davis, who he wrote ‘Convoy’ with. The album featured a new recording of ‘Convoy’.
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