Top Ten Songs Written by Roger Miller: When Two Worlds Collide (#1)

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Thanks again to @xander6464 for wanting a Roger Miller countdown and getting more than he bargained for. And thanks to you all for enduring this country music showcase. I’ll go back to rock and roll soon (gonna do the 50 and 40-year old song thing in July). But first, and to nobody’s surprise, here’s my favorite song that Roger Miller wrote as a hit for someone else. #1: When Two Worlds Collide - Jim Reeves (Linda? Probably not.) Jim Reeves recorded three songs that Miller wrote or co-wrote and co-wrote one with him (“If Heartache is the Fashion”). So there was an admiration there. Earlier in the countdown I mentioned Bill Anderson. Now we reach the story (or one of many). Anderson was a young songwriter, just starting out (he may still have been in college at the time [he wrote “City Lights” while working a part-time DJ job to help pay his way through college]). Miller was drumming in Ray Price’s band. As Price had recorded “City Lights” he grabbed Anderson for an opening spot on a tour. The stories of traveling on the road in a car (instead of a tour bus) with a bass fiddle attached to the roof are hilarious. It was also during those long hours that Anderson and Miller referenced the Oscar-winning 1951 film When Worlds Collide, and things took off from there. By the next rest stop they’d written this song. (On a bittersweet note, Anderson wrote in one of his books that the last time he saw Miller, Roger had just had surgery for throat cancer caused by years of smoking. Miller, very hoarse, walked up and said, “Hey, Whisper, look! I’m stealing your act!”) Jim Reeves’ version was the first I heard, and by far still the best. It’s been recorded a number of times, including a “spliced” duet with younger singer Deborah Allen singing over half of Reeves’ parts (which begs the question: WHY????? ). My favorite singer, putting the gold standard on a heartbreak song. What a perfect pairing. Thanks for reading. When Two Worlds Collide Written by Roger Miller and Bill Anderson Recorded by Jim Reeves From The Country Side of Jim Reeves, 1962 My world could never fit in: