Convoy (Song)

Convoy is a novelty song released in 1975 by "C.W. McCall", the stage name for advertising executive Bill Fries. The song's co-writer was Chip Davis, better known as the lead of the musical group Mannheim Steamroller. The song hit #1 on both the country and pop charts, as well as in Canada.

The song's title refers to a group of truck drivers, as used during the citizen's band (CB) radio craze of the 1970s.

The song itself consists of three distinct parts: simulated CB communications, a narration, and a singing part.

The "convoy" starts with three drivers in California: "Rubber Duck" in the lead (his is the only voice in the narration), an unnamed driver in the middle, and "Pig Pen" at the rear. Rubber Duck mentions how the drivers are not going to obey speed and other trucking regulations, and by the time the group reaches the Jersey Shore, the convoy has grown to over 1,000 trucks (plus one chartruse VW Microbus carrying 13 hippie "friends of Jesus"). A running gag in the song has Rubber Duck complaining about the smell of Pig Pen's load (swine) and telling him to "back off"; by the time Rubber Duck has made the Jersey Shore Pig Pen is still back in Omaha, Nebraska (known for its slaughterhouses, and also home of American Gramaphone which released the song).

There was a follow-up to the song, "Around the World With the Rubber Duck", which had the convoy cross the Atlantic Ocean and the continents of Europe and Asia, but it wasn't as popular as the original.