The Traveling Wilburys were one of the, if not the, best supergroups of all time. They consisted of George Harrison from the Beatles, Jeff Lynne from ELO—Electric Light Orchestra—Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty.
And the whole band started under strange circumstances.
In April of 1988 George Harrison was trying to record a B‑side for his song This Is Love that had been released on his Cloud 9 album. One thing led to another, and he decided to hang out with Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison, who were all working on separate projects at the time. Although Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne were working with Roy Orbison on his new album Mystery Girl and Bob Dylan was helping out as well.
Jeff Lynne said that he would come and help George Harrison on his B‑side for This Is Love, and Roy Orbison, who was around, said, “Hey, I’ll come watch as well.” Then George Harrison decided to phone Bob Dylan, who agreed to let them use his garage studio in Malibu. Tom Petty, who was also working with Lynne, decided to come along and hang out as well.
And it kind of started as a jam session, but after a little while George Harrison started to think, “Hey, this could be something special.” And that’s how this first song from the album came to be. It was supposed to just be a B‑side for George Harrison.
Handle With Care — a phrase that sometimes, you know, is stamped on boxes of musical equipment when roadies are moving them from show to show. Bob Dylan’s studio where they recorded the song had a garage, and one of the boxes in the garage apparently said “handle with care,” and that inspired the lyric.
Kicking us off on the brilliant 1988 album Volume One, The Traveling Wilburys — here they are with their first single and their biggest single, “Handle With Care.” Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison. Have a listen!
