Toby Keith Song For Wayman Tisdale Soars To Top OF Country Chart
song written in honor of the late Wayman Tisdale featured smooth jazz saxophonist Dave Koz recently hit No. 1. Country music singer Toby Keith’s “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song) ” took the top spot on the Music Row chart. Music Row is a country-music industry publication in Nashville. The song is also a Top 10 hit on Billboard’s country music singles chart.
Keith wrote “Cryin’ for Me” as a tribute to fellow Oklahoman Tisdale, the pro-basketball-player-turned-smooth-jazz-bassist who died last year after a two-year battle with cancer. Keith performed with Tisdale’s band last weekend at a University of Oklahoma men’s basketball game where the halftime show was dedicated to Tisdale, an All-American at OU.
Tisdale and Keith had been friends for a long time. On Tisdale’s final album, Rebound, the bassist recruited Keith to sing on a cover of Barry White’s “Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up.” At Tisdale’s public memorial service last May, Keith says he wanted to perform “Cryin’ For Me (Wayman’s Song),” but admitted he was too emotional about the loss of his friend to complete the tune. Instead, he dedicated to Tisdale an acoustic version of Willie Nelson’s “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground.”