Almost Hits: The Traveling Wilburys - Handle With Care (1988)

Together, Crosby Stills and Nash (and sometimes Young) had more chart success than The Traveling Wilburys, but based on their prior fame - and all of their earlier critical and commercial accomplishments - you would have to admit The Wilburys were the most super of all of the super groups.

What a sensational lineup! If you don't already know, The Wilburys were Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. Sadly, only Dylan and Lynne are still with us today.

For most of The Wilburys their days of reaching the coveted top spot on the Hot 100 were long over. Still, you would expect a much better chart performance for a great song like "Handle With Care" than only peaking at #45. It did better in Britain (#21), and in Canada the single made it all the way to #2. Fortunately, the debut CD from which it came hit #3 on the Billboard album chart, so it's possible the album's success may have actually hurt the single's sales.

The band was started by Harrison and Lynne when the five musicians got together to record a b-side for the ex-Beatle's upcoming European single, "This is Love." When the record company executives heard "Handle With Care" they told Harrison it was too good to be used as a bonus track, so the musicians formed a band and released Traveling Wilburys, Vol.1.

The song was Harrison's conception. He had the opening line, "Been beat up and battered around," but in keeping with the collaborative spirit of the all-star quintet everyone helped with the lyrics.

The song was recorded in Dylan's Santa Monica home studio that he set up in his garage. When he asked Harrison for the song's title the British rocker answered, "Handle With Care" after noticing those words printed on a box label he found in the garage. While writing for AllMusic.com, Matthew Greenwald, said the song is about, "getting out from under the shell of the '60s fallout, along with a strong theme of survival."

"Handle With Care" has two bridges. After Harrison sings the verses Orbison takes the the lead vocal on the first one with Dylan out front on the second.

The Wilburys in their original configuration didn't survive for long. Orbison died soon after Vol. 1 was released. The remaining quartet recorded their final album together, Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3, two years later. 
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Almost Hits is an occasional exploration into songs that failed to reach the top 20 on the American Billboard Hot 100. Many have become classics despite what their chart position would indicate.

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