William Fries, 15 November 1928, Audubon, Iowa, USA. Fries loved country music as a child, but had a successful career in advertising in Omaha, culminating in a 1973 campaign for the Metz bread company that involved a truck-driver called C.W. McCall: ‘It was just a name that came out of thin air, ’ says Fries. He had done the voice-over himself and developed the character on record with arranger Chip Davis (who later found fame of his own as the leader of Mannheim Steamroller). McCall had a US country hit with ‘The Old Home Filler-Up And Keep On A-Truckin’ Cafe’, and then reached the pop chart with a tale of brake failure on ‘Wolf Creek Pass’. President Nixon had imposed a 55 miles per hour speed limit during an oil shortage, and CB radio, which had previously been confined to farmers and radio hams, became in demand so that motorists could warn each other of radar traps. McCall told the story of ‘Convoy’ in CB jargon...
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