On This Day in 1976, C.W. McCall’s Album Was at No. 1 Thanks to a Hit Song That Inspired a Nationwide Craze and a Kris Kristofferson Movie

On this day (December 6) in 1976, C.W. McCall was at the top of the country albums chart with Black Bear Road. Released in September 1975. The album reached No. 1 in time to be the final chart-topping LP of the year. Then, it held the top spot for the first eight weeks of 1976. The album produced McCall’s first and only No. 1 single, “Convoy,” which became a cultural phenomenon.

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McCall released his debut album, Wolf Creek Pass, in 1975. It reached No. 4 on the country chart and No. 143 on the Billboard 200. The album also produced three top 20 country hits. The title track also reached the top 40 of the Hot 100. His sophomore release, Black Bear Road, would be much more successful.

[RELATED: 6 Songs That Show How Popular Country Music Was in 1975]

The LP produced two singles. The title track and lead single peaked at No. 24 on the country chart and failed to make it onto the Hot 100. The second single, “Convoy,” was by far the most successful thing McCall ever released. It topped the country chart and the Hot 100. It also went to No. 1 in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. More importantly, it had a massive cultural impact.

C.W. McCall Gives Everyone a New Hobby

Doug Fries, the man behind the fictional C.W. McCall, likely didn’t know “Convoy” would make such a big splash. It became more than a hit. It was a trucker anthem during a time when things were hard for the trucking industry. Additionally, it made trucker culture cool. The popularity of the song inspired countless Americans to purchase CB radios for their homes and cars.

“Now, the interstate highways at that time were at where you could run at 75 on all of them,” Fries recalled in a 2011 interview. “But now they had declared by edict that it was going to be 55 nationwide. When that happened, the truckers got kind of up in arms. I always kind of identified with truckers with the stuff I was doing, and Chip and I went out to see what was going on out on the highways,” he added.

“Convoy” inspired a movie of the same name. It was directed by Sam Peckinpah and starred Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, and Ernest Borgnine. McCall wrote a new version of the song to fit the plot of the movie for the soundtrack.

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