Trivia / Mannheim Steamroller

• He Also Did: Chip Davis wrote much of the music for country musician C. W. McCall. The McCall character was a truck driver in commercials for a bread maker in the early 1970s whose flirty adventures with a truck-stop waitress named Mavis were told through a talk-singing Country Rap whose music Davis wrote. The commercial, as well as a commercially released single based on them, was so successful in the markets where the bread was sold that the advertising executive who sang in them, Bill Fries, assumed the C.W. McCall persona and had a real-life musical career, with music written by Davis. McCall's career hit a pinnacle with the smash hit "Convoy," which fueled the citizens-band radio fad of the late 1970s.
• Real Song Theme Tune: Their song "Toccata" was used by Superstation WTBS for news broadcasts in the early 80s. They did it without permission at first; Chip Davis heard his song being used and called them up about it, angry at first. He soon wound up befriending Bill "Troll" Tullis, head of music at WTBS and occasional staff announcer (you likely heard him announcing "This is CNN Headline News." during the late 80s and 90s).
• Viral Marketing: One main way Fresh Aire albums got sold in the 1970s was through stereo salesmen, who would play the albums for customers to demonstrate the stereo systems they were selling.
  • The group's first Christmas album came out in 1984 and was one of the first released on Compact Disc, making the album a good demonstration in stores for CDs.

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