SOUL MATES: We’ve already reported that Lyle...

SOUL MATES: We’ve already reported that Lyle Lovett--with wife Julia Roberts looking on--teamed up with Al Green recently in a Hollywood recording studio to record Willie Nelson’s “Funny How Time Slips Away” for MCA Records’ hush-hush soul-country compilation that is due early next year.

But now some more details about the collection are leaking out. Among the pairings already in the can: Gladys Knight and Vince Gill teaming on the 1968 Marvin Gaye-Tammi Terrell hit “Ain’t Nothin’ Like the Real Thing,” the Staple Singers and Marty Stuart offering up the Band’s “The Weight” and the late Conway Twitty joining Sam Moore on Brook Benton’s “Rainy Night in Georgia.”

MCA Music Entertainment Group Chairman Al Teller came up with the concept for the album, which is a joint venture between MCA’s pop music and Nashville divisions. Producer Don Was is overseeing the recording.

Other artist teamings include George Jones and B.B. King, while Reba McEntire and George Strait are reportedly looking for partners. Sources say the project has been kept under wraps for fear another label will issue a similar album before MCA’s hits the streets.