Billboard #1 Hits: #385: “Convoy”- C.W. McCall. January 10, 1976. #1 for 1 week in the Billboard Hot 100.

• Single:”Convoy”- C.W. McCall
• Record Company- MCM
• Genre: Country
• Written by Bill Fries
• Time:3:49
• B-side:” Long Lonesome Road”
• Album-Black Bear Road
• Grade: C
• Peaked at #1 1 week in Billboard Hot 100. #2 in UK Singles Chart, #1 in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Truck songs were big in the mid-70’s for some reason. This song combines that with the CB craze of the mid to late 70’s. The writer of this song- Bill Fries- went by C.W. McCall for the single. This single topped both the pop and country singles chart.

From Songfacts:

C.W. McCall is a character created by songwriter Bill Fries. While he displayed musical promise as a child, he was more interested in graphic design. While attending the University of Iowa, Fries studied music and played in the school’s concert band, but his major was in fine arts, and after graduation he began handling the art chores at an Omaha, Nebraska television station. After five years there, he was hosting his own program, where he drew caricatures of celebrities.

Fries signed on as the art director for an Omaha advertising agency in the early ’60s, and it was there that he created the character C.W. McCall as a selling tool for an area bakery. A trucker for the fictional Old Home Bread company who spent much of his time in a diner called The Old Home Filler-Up-an’-Keep-On-a-Truckin’ Cafe, the McCall character was a huge hit with viewers, and the radio campaign won Fries the advertising industry’s prestigious Clio Award. In 1974, Fries decided to cut a record under the McCall moniker, and the single, a monologue with country backing titled after the aforementioned cafe, became a hit. A follow-up single, “Wolf Creek Pass,” was even more successful.