Background
The album contains popular hit singles by both artists on each side of the album. However the first Jim Reeves track, I Fall to Pieces was overdubbed with Patsy Cline's version to form a duet. This was possible only because in Nashville's early 60's music scene when both hits were recorded,both Chet Atkins at RCA and Owen Bradley at Decca had access to then-brand-new 3-track mastering recorders. In this format,the orchestra was recorded on one track,the backup singers on another track,and the lead vocal on the third. This recording setup was intended for mixdown to mono in the end.
Owen Bradley had been approached by Jim Reeves' widow,Mary Reeves Davis,with the idea of creating Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline duets. With the approval of the Cline estate,as well as both RCA Records and MCA Records,work on the project began. In early 1981,Owen simply played the original 3-track tapes and recorded both Patsy's and Jim's isolated vocals onto a 24-track tape. As the two performances were recorded a semitone apart in key,subsequently,at Music City Music Hall in Nashville (the former RCA Studio A),engineers matched the keys for the two vocals,edited it all down and recorded the final onto still another 24-track tape onto which they added new orchestration,new backing tracks and remixed for stereo. RCA's similar album,Greatest Hits of Jim Reeves &Patsy Cline has the same treatment for the other song from the session.
As the original Decca label with which Cline had been under contract to,had since been merged with MCA,six Patsy Cline songs and five Jim Reeves songs are featured on that album,plus the duet. Jim Reeves had recorded exclusively for RCA Victor,so the RCA album has the reverse —six Jim Reeves hits and five Patsy Cline hits,plus a duet of Have You Ever Been Lonely? ,produced during the same sessions as the duet for I Fall to Pieces .
The songs were both released as a single from the albums in question. Have You Ever Been Lonely? charted at #5 in 1982 and I Fall to Pieces charted at #54 the same year. Each was the only song overdubbed on its respective album.
The tracks recorded by Cline (including the duet) were produced by Decca/MCA's Owen Bradley,Cline's original record producer. Reeves' recordings were produced by RCA's Chet Atkins and Bob Ferguson on Side One of the album,while the recordings on Side Two were produced by Chet alone. The reverse is true for the RCA album. The album was digitally remastered and issued on CD in 1988. [2]
In 1997 the album was certified Gold by the RIAA for a shipment of over 500,000 copies in the United States. [3]
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