The title track of Jimmy Wayne’s new Sara Smile album is a remake of a 33-year-old Daryl Hall & John Oates hit, but it’s not the only song on the CD Jimmy picked up from another recording act.

In fact, Jimmy made the other song, “Things I Believe,” the opening track on the disc. He got it from Keith Urban but only after a phone call to make sure Keith really wanted to surrender it.

“He was like, ‘Nah, you can have it,’” Jimmy told The Tennessean. “I thought that was pretty amazing of him. You don’t want to give up your babies, and he was nice enough to give it to me. That says a lot about him. That’s why it’s the first song on the CD.”

“Sara Smile” meanwhile is making some rather impressive moves. It’s currently at No. 30 on the USA Today Mediabase country singles list with Hall & Oates singing backup. The song is important for Jimmy in that he sang it in a record-company audition that cinched his first deal. And if it continues its upward movement, it might well end up snagging a musical event nomination in the Country Music Association or Academy of Country Music awards. That would put Daryl and John, known for their blue-eyed Philly soul, on a country nominees list for the first time — a development that would’ve been highly improbable just a few years ago.

“Jimmy really took the song over the top,” John told The Tennessean. “He’s such a great singer. Jimmy and [producer] Dann Huff didn’t try to reinvent the wheel and change the song. He made it his own without changing the integrity of the original song, and I think that’s difficult to do, but they nailed it.”

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