CMT Blog: Archive

One of Jimmy Wayne's dreams is scheduled to come true Thursday afternoon (Oct. 9) when he finally sings "Sara Smile" with John Oates of Hall & Oates. The event is supposed to take place during a party celebrating Wayne's recent No. 1 single, "Do You Believe Me Now." Oates confirmed the plan Wednesday during a visit to CMT's offices in Nashville. "It's supposed to be a secret, but I guess it doesn't matter," Oates said. "So I think I'm going to play on one of his tunes and then do ‘Sara Smile.' It'll be a lot of fun."

Wayne included "Sara Smile" in his early auditions in Nashville and has frequently cited Hall & Oates' 1976 pop hit as one of the reasons he got signed to his first record deal. Oates and longtime musical partner Daryl Hall had their first direct encounter with Wayne while visiting the Sirius Satellite Radio studios in New York City. Essentially, Wayne freaked out. "He jumped all over me and Daryl and started hugging us," Oates laughed. "I was a little nervous."

They swapped phone numbers, and Oates agreed to sing on a track featured on Wayne's latest album, Do You Believe Me Now. Wayne reciprocated by providing background vocals on Oates' new album, 1000 Miles of Life, which was recorded in Nashville.

Not only has Oates never sung "Sara Smile" with Wayne, he's never sung any of Hall & Oates' songs with anyone other than Hall. "I sing ‘Sara Smile' during my solo shows, but that's a very Daryl Hall song," he said. "We wrote it together, but that's kind of his song since he came up with the idea, and it was about his girlfriend." Oates isn't worried about singing it with Wayne, though. "When you strip it away from all the production, you could play that thing on a flute and it would sound good," he said. "It's one of those songs that's so good inherently from a writing point of view, Jimmy will kill it."