By Tim McCanless

Billy Dale Fries was the creative director for an Omaha ad agency in the late 1960's. A new client, Old Home Bread asked the agency to come up with some sort of a ground breaking campaign for them. Fries came up with the idea of creating an alter-ego, C.W. McCall and recorded some commercials as McCall gabbing on his CB radio with his girlfriend Mavis about Old Home Bread. They became a hit and when the CB radio craze caught on nationwide, Fries took the opportunity to record a single in the guise if C.W. McCall called "Convoy". The song told the story of a line of truckers on the highway and was loaded with trucker jargon. The song shot up to number one and sent sales of CB radios skyrocketing. C.W. McCall, it turns out couldn't really sing, but "Convoy was his only big hit.
Terry Jacks, a native Canadian enjoyed several hits in the early 1970's. While supervising a session wi9th the Beach Boys, they recorded a favorite tune of hi, "Le Moribond (The Dying Man)" by Belgian songwriter Jacques Brel. American poet Rod McKuen had written an English translation of the song, which was now called "Seasons in the Sun." The Beach Boy's vetoed the song and Jacks rewrote the last verse after the death of a close friend. He recorded the song himself in 1974, and the record ended up selling more than 3 million copies in the U.S. alone.

White boy rapper Vanilla Ice had released a single in 1990 that was a re-work of the Wild Cherry hit "Play That Funky Music." The song got some play in clubs, but then in Georgia, a DJ named Darrell Jaye flipped the record over and played the "B" side. "Ice Ice Baby" became a worldwide smash, and the first rap single to hit number one oon the pop charts. Unfortunately V-Ice had sampled quite heavily from the Queen/Bowie hit "Under Pressure" for his song and neglected to get permission to do so. Legal battles ensued and royalties had to be paid. In the mean time,, Ice's "official" biography which described a poor white child who grew up in Miami's ghetto began to unravel. It was revealed that he was really one Robert Van Winkle, church choir singing stepson fof an auto dealer in a suburb of Dallas.

Toni Basil got her start in show biz as a choreographer. Cheerleading was in her blood, though, and she noticed the connection between cheerleading and dancing, which manifested when she decided to record "Mickey." The song started out as a love song called "Kitty" written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman; Basil changed it to "Mickey" and added the cheerleading chants to the lyrics. The song hit number one in 1982, and is still a pop favorite.

How does one classify "Come on Eileen"? It's a chant and a fiddle-tune as well as a pop song. Dexys Midnight Runners had already some success in the UK with their "Celtic Soul" sound. Lead singer Kevin Rowland wrote a song about his first crush, a young girl named Eileen. The lyrics, he said, reflected his conflicted feelings about his strict Catholic upbringing ­ his thoughts when he saw Eileen were less than wholesome. Whatever the inspiration, the addition of mournful violins and a catchy refrain made this the biggest selling British single of 1982 and sent it to #1 in the US.

Bill and Taffy (who would name their child Taffy?) Danoff were folk singers from the 1960's scene who met up with the late John Denver, co-writing "Take Me Home Country Roads" with him. When the song became a million-seller, the duo became Denver's opening act on the road. They eventually teamed up with Jon Carroll and Margot Chapman and formed the Starland Vocal Band. When Denver started his own label, Windsong, one of the first singles was the Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight." The song hit #1 and became one of the biggest selling songs of 1976. Even today the term "Afternoon Delight" is used because of the popularity of this song.