When Two Worlds Collide was Lewis's second album after leaving Mercury Records and peaked at number 32 on the Billboard country albums chart. The title track was released as a single, making it to number 11, while the Jerry Chestnut song "Honky Tonk Stuff" reached number 28. Lewis had previously recorded "Who Will Buy the Wine" with Sam Phillips at Sun Records. The period leading up to the recording had been a difficult one for Lewis. In July 1979, his father died of cancer and, two months later, he was arrested for possession of pills prescribed by Dr. George C. Nichopoulos, the infamous "Dr. Nick" who had also prescribed pills to Elvis Presley. (In the 2014 authorized biography Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, Lewis would call Dr. Nick "a good man, a remarkable man.") The IRS was also after his assets and he was in poor health from a lifetime of excess. He went on an ill-advised British tour, appearing on The Old Grey Whistle Test, and then came home to participate in a television special with Mickey Gilley called A Family Affair, looking gaunt as the cousins played side by side at the piano.
The New York Times wrote: "Drawing upon his encyclopedic knowledge of American pop-music idioms, from Sousa marches through ragtime to raunchy rock and roll, Mr. Lewis plays exuberantly throughout When Two Worlds Collide, his left hand thumping out the beat while his right races up and down the keys in imitation of the ups-and-downs of his career."[6]Robert Christgau noted that "new producer Eddie Kilroy doesn't push Jerry Lee the way Bones Howe did on Jerry Lee Lewis."[4]
