William Dale Fries Jr. (November 15, 1928 – April 1, 2022) was an American commercial artist who won several Clio Awards for his advertising campaigns.

He was also a musician remembered for his character C. W. McCall, a truck-driving country singer that he created for a series of bread commercials while working for an Omaha advertising agency as an art director.

Fries performed as McCall in a series of outlaw albums and songs in the 1970s, in collaboration with co-worker Chip Davis who also founded Mannheim Steamroller.

[5] Bill Jr. first performed at the age of three in a local talent contest, singing "Coming ' Round the Mountain" while his mother played the piano.

He also supported the local ballet and opera societies, doing work which won an award from the Omaha Artists and Art Directors Club.

This attracted the attention of Bozell & Jacobs which was a local advertising agency and they gave him a job as an art director, doubling his salary.

To complete the name, Fries added initials, shown embroidered on the trucker's shirt, and chose "C. W." for country and western.

There, a waitress named Mavis (played by Jean McBride Capps as a Marilyn Monroe bombshell) awaited the bread delivery.

McCall would later joke that Capps "was built like a couple of cub scouts trying to put up a Sears Roebuck pup tent.

"[10] The character Mavis was named after a real waitress at the White Spot café in Audubon where Fries grew up.

But the theme is rebellious instead of sentimental: truckers coordinating by CB radio to rebel against the new federal speed limit of 55 mph.

The mix of anti-authority feeling and country authenticity was immensely popular, and helped feed a nationwide craze for CB radios and trucker culture.

McCall songs appeared on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart, including the sentimental "Roses for Mama" (1977).

[2] The film starred Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Burt Young, and Ernest Borgnine and was directed by Sam Peckinpah.

"Kidnap America" was a politically/socially-conscious track released in 1980 during the Iran hostage crisis, while "Pine Tar Wars" referred to an event that actually happened in a New York Yankees–Kansas City Royals baseball game during 1983 (a dispute concerning the application of a large quantity of pine tar to a baseball bat used by George Brett, one of the Royals' players).