With the release of “Out Where The Bright Lights Are Glowing,” Milsap contributed to something of a Jim Reeves revival. In 1979 and ’80, RCA gained a fair amount of mileage from its Reeves catalog when Deborah Allen was commissioned to overdub her vocals onto some of Jim’s old tracks to create “duets” with Reeves. This project yielded three Top Ten singles: “Don’t Let Me Cross Over” (Carl and Pearl Butler’s mega-hit from ’63), “Oh, How I Miss You Tonight,” and Eddy Arnold’s chart-topper from 1950: Cindy Walker’s “Take Me In Your Arms And Hold Me.”
Spurred by those successes, RCA dug even deeper in an attempt to uncover songs that both Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline had recorded, in an effort to make duets out of those as well. This was a considerably tougher endeavor because the songs needed to be in the same key and similar in tempo. Only two suitable tracks were found. The voices of Reeves and Cline were electronically linked and one of those duets “Have You Ever Been Lonely (Have You Ever Been Blue)” became a Top Five single in late 1981. The only other usable track turned out to be, surprisingly enough, Patsy’s #1 classic “I Fall To Pieces” but the overdub mix on that one didn’t come off as well and the Reeves/Cline duet version did not reach “hit” status.
