It seems I just looked him up a few weeks ago to see if he was still alive.
I have a couple of his CDs. Great talent, even if not the best singing voice.
That’s a 10-4, good buddy. Be sure to keep the bugs off your glass and the bears off your … tail.
I can’t believe that C W McCall was made up for an ad campaign, yet he went on to have multiple songs & did was successful as his character
When I first heard “Black Bear Road” on the radio I had no way to record it except on audio cassette. I put a mike up to the radio and waited until it came on. Saved the tape for my dad to hear, since he loved driving in the mountains.I did not expect how hard my dad would laugh, he LOVED it, and the joke was partly on me, as I didn’t know that the road in question was real, and that dad had been on it. Even had a picture of my mom standing beside the sign.
We played “Convoy” for one of my younger coworkers back in 2016. She had never heard of the song and couldn’t believe someone based a movie off it.
Let it forever be remembered that he crashed the gate, doing 98.
The first album I ever got was by CW McCall. My dad gave it to me because it was on 8-track, and I had an old 8-track player in my bedroom. I mostly liked Convoy, but Black Bear Road and Oregon Trail were also favorites.
Before “Convoy,” he had a tune we played on a Top 40 station I worked for in Kentucky: “The Old Home Filler-up and Keep On-a Truckin’ Cafe.” It’s a great song, guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. At the time, we heard he was an ad man and the song was originally a jingle he wrote for a client. I still have the promo 45 rpm record.
Old Home Filler up, Keep on Truckin’ Cafe. -CW McCall- - YouTube
Haha, here’s another 98 for you, the wiki page for the song says it is rated number 98 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time.
Convoy was a fun song! Rest In Peace there, Rubber Duck.
we gone bye-bye. Farewell Mr. Fries.
Just listened to it again. One of those songs I never get tired of.
Another article with background, etc., in New York Times:
He also did “Crispy Critters”, a cute redneck song poking fun at people who don’t look and act just like him and his friends.
“Convoy” was the first 45 I ever bought, and I played it so much that it wound up pretty badly worn. I still have it, in my 45 collection, in storage somewhere in the house.
When I grew up, and started working in advertising, I was amused to learn that McCall/Fries was an ad guy.
I’ve been a McCall fan since the first time I heard “Convoy” back in 1975. I had all his albums on vinyl and listened to them on my crappy record player until they wore out, and when CDs came out I replaced them all. My parents and I also wore out an 8-track of “truckin’ songs” (a lot of McCall, along with other novelty and country songs about trucking) on our cross-country motorhome trip in 1976.
I still have all those CDs, and I still listen to them. Just last week I was playing one of his albums in my car (though on Amazon music now, not a CD).
My favorite semi-obscure McCall songs are “Green River,” “There Won’t Be No Country Music,” “Comin’ Back for More,” and “Ghost Town” (which is really quite beautiful, IMO).
RIP Rubber Duckie. You understood the zeitgeist of your times, tapped into it, and made the most of it.
That’s where he got his start. He had a radio ad agency and – with somewhat different wording – that was for one of his clients.
I liked those too. Was Ghost Town the one that started out ‘The dance hall is silent and empty’?
Yep, that’s the one! Very haunting.
Here’s the video of his first Old Home Keep On Truckin’ Cafe commercials. They were so popular that they made a whole series of them; I think he marries “Mavis” at the end. You couldn’t avoid seeing them on local TV stations in the upper Midwest (where they sold Old Home bread).