Take It to the Limit was the next-to-last collaboration between Jennings and Nelson; of the four duets albums released by the singers, 1978's Waylon & Willie achieved the greatest success.

Despite the fact that neither singer was in top artistic form and Jennings' most successful days were already over, the record managed to chart, peaking at #3, as did WWII.

In his review of the album for AllMusic, James Chrispell writes, "it sounds like these two hombres are just plain tired and saddle-sore from all the high riding days of the past.

Most of the tunes are covers of previous hits by other artists and have little in association with what Willie (or Waylon) are about except for their take on George Jones' "Why Baby Why."

Author Joe Nick Paroski stated in his 2008 book Willie Nelson that the LP "reflected a growing distance.