* En anglais uniquement
As a creative director of an advertising agency in Omaha, Nebraska, Bill Fries was tasked with organising a campaign for the local Metz Baking Company in 1974. He came up with a roguish truck driver character called C.W. McCall who delivered Old Home Good Buns and charmed the waitress at a roadside diner. Helped by Fries' catchy, Johnny Cash-style, country music jingles, the commercials were a surprise success and Fries took the character on to chat shows and released The Old Home Filler-Up An' Keep On Truckin' Café as a single. It made the top 20 on the US Country Charts and follow-ups Wolf Creek Pass and Classified further enhanced the popularity of the novelty, comedy creation; but it was a year later that McCall really became a big star. Capturing America's growing infatuation with the myth of the long-haul truck driver, his single Convoy reached number one on the National Charts, selling over two million copies and was later made into a movie by Sam Peckinpah, starring Kris Kristofferson. With his fame buoyed by a boom in CB radio, the album Black Bear Road reached number 12 and singles There Won't Be No Country Music, Round The World With The Rubber Duck and Roses For Mama were minor hits, but within a few years the C.W. McCall persona reached the end of the road. Bill Fries went on to become mayor of his hometown Ouray, Colorado and attempted an unsuccessful comeback with his eighth album American Spirit in 2003.
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