Jim first heard Dottie on a recording she had out in 1959.  "I was making records for Starday at the time," she recalls, "and he liked the song that I had called I Should Start Running.  He called me to do some of his demo sessions and we just became friends."

Dottie did some package shows that year with him, and it wasn't long until she pitched him a song.  "The very first professional song I ever wrote was called Is This Me and Jim recorded it.  He took the song and sang it exactly like I wrote it," Dottie remembers.  "I can't believe it."  Jim recorded Is This Me in November of 1962.  It peaked at number three in the spring of 1963.  (Dottie would later record the song.  You can find it on her album Suffer Time.)

The success of Is This Me not only garnered Dottie her first BMI songwriters award, but also helped her get a contract with RCA Records.  And once again it was her friend, Jim Reeves, who was paving the way.  "He walked up with me to receive the BMI Award for it and that's as close to an overnight success as I can talk about."

Jim was one of the biggest selling artists on the RCA roster in 1963.  Dottie was with Atlantic at the time and her career had pretty much stalled.  Jim talked to his producer, Chet Atkins, about her.  "He really cared," Dottie says of Jim.  "He really wanted to see me make it in the business."  On Jim's advice, Chet  signed her that summer.  Chet remembered Jim talking about Dottie.  "Jim played me a song they had written together and told me he thought she was great.  Buddy Killen brought some demos over and they laid around a few days or weeks, I don't remember.  I listened to them and thought 'she is good'.  And I called her and she was out mowing the grass - you know that story.  I signed her up and she brought in Here Comes My Baby and I knew it was a smash.  Once in awhile you know when a record's going to be."

One night at the Opry, in late 1963, Jim and Dottie discussed recording a duet together.  Unbeknownst to Dottie, Jim and Chet had discussed the idea first.  Dottie agreed and on December 17th they recorded Justin Tubb's Love Is No Excuse and the flip side, Look Who's Talking.  It was released as a single on February 18, 1964.  It was later released on Jim's Jim Reeves & Some Friends LP in 1969.  The single debuted on Billboard's Country & Western chart March 28, 1964, and was riding high on the chart when Jim passed away in a plane crash on July 31st.  He was coming back from Arkansas when the plane he was in ran into bad weather.  Jim and his his piano player both died.  The song stalled a few weeks later at #7 and spent a total of 27 weeks on the singles chart.

Unfortunately for their fans, they only recorded the two songs together.  "We did have plans at the time to go in [the studio]...had even chosen some of the songs that we were going to put on an album," Dottie remembered.  "So we were going into the studio again.  I have such pretty memories of being in the studio with Jim."

Here Comes My Baby was released less than a month after Jim's passing.