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Roy Orbison passed away not long after Traveling Wilburys   Vol. 1  was completed, but the remaining quartet of George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Bob Dylan carried on. Even without their operatic voiced, pop singing bandmate the Wilburys were still the most star-studded, rock supergroup of all time. Orbison was easily the strongest singer of the five, and the former Sun Records prodigy was definitely missed when it came time to record the band's follow up. Both Harrison and Lynne sing well enough to get the job done - but neither one is outstanding - and at times Petty and Dylan can sound a little similar to each other. To play a joke on their fans, the ex-Beatle - the Wilburys' founder and nominal leader of the band - decided to name their second and final album Vol. 3 . It wasn't a hilarious joke, but it received a few light chuckles from me and some other fans. That light-hearted album title kind of matches the music found on...

I've become addicted to  Tom Petty's Buried Treasure , found at SiriusXM channel 711. It's a continually running, hour long show where Petty mostly played obscure records from his own collection. At one time the program was a weekly feature on the satellite radio service's Deep Tracks channel. Later, all 250-plus episodes were spun off onto their own station. Petty featured a lot of rock and roll, rhythm & blues and straight ahead blues from the 50s, 60s and 70s, but the rocking DJ with a great sense of humor didn't hesitate to play newer stuff - like The White Stripes and Kings of Leon - if he was so moved. The late star has played a lot of very old music that is new to me. A typical show may feature Sonny Boy Williamson, Elmore James, The McCoys, The Zombies, The Animals, Chuck Berry, Ann Peebles, Canned Heat, Paul Revere and The Raiders, Taj Mahal, Jimi Hendrix, The Rascals, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Shangri-La...

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 b...