| Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Traveling Wilburys | ||||
| Released | 18 October 1988 (US) 24 October 1988 (UK) |
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| Recorded | April – May 1988 FPShot, Lucky Studios and Dave Stewart Studios |
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| Genre | Rock, folk rock | |||
| Length | 36:22 | |||
| Label | Wilbury/Warner Bros. Records 25796 |
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| Producer | Otis Wilbury, Nelson Wilbury | |||
| Traveling Wilburys chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Houston Chronicle | [2] |
| Robert Christgau | (A-)[3] |
| Rolling Stone | [4] |
| This table needs to be expanded using prose. See the guideline for more information. | |
Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 is the debut album by the supergroup Traveling Wilburys and was recorded and released in 1988 to commercial success and critical acclaim.
Contents |
In early April 1988, George Harrison was in Los Angeles, California and needed to record a B-side for a European 12-inch single. Jeff Lynne was also in Los Angeles producing some tracks for Roy Orbison as well as Tom Petty’s solo album. While having dinner with Lynne and Orbison, Harrison related how he needed to record a new track and wanted to do it the next day. Both offered to help. Needing a studio on short notice, Harrison suggested they call Bob Dylan, who had a home studio. After dinner, George stopped by Tom Petty’s house to pick up his guitar for the next day’s session and invited him along too. Gathering at Dylan’s Malibu home the following day, they wrote and recorded the song “Handle with Care” in five hours, with all five sharing the vocals.[5]
The track was considered too good to be used as a B-side, so Harrison hatched the idea to form a band and record another nine songs for an album. The group got together again for nine days in May, recording the basic tracks and vocals at David A. Stewart’s home studio in Los Angeles. Overdubs and mixing were done back in England at Harrison’s home studio F.P.S.H.O.T. (Friar Park Studio, Henley-on-Thames).
Masquerading as the Wilbury brothers, the participants would be known as Nelson (Harrison), Otis (Lynne), Lucky (Dylan), Lefty (Orbison) and Charlie T. Jr. (Petty). Harrison was no stranger to the use of alternate identities with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but this concept was taken a step further: their real names never appear anywhere on the album, liner notes, or even the songwriting credits.
With Harrison having the greatest claim to the band, he signed them up to Warner Bros. Records (which Petty eventually signed to himself, and which, through Reprise Records, released Lynne's solo album Armchair Theatre in 1990), his current label, and incorporated their own Wilbury Records label, in addition to producing the sessions with Lynne that spring.
Released October 18, 1988, Volume One became the surprise hit of the year, selling two million copies within six months in the United States. Although the single "Handle With Care" did not scale the pop charts (it stalled at US #45), the album did, reaching #16 in the UK and an impressive #3 in the US. With over fifty weeks on the charts, the album was later certified triple-platinum. While Harrison and Petty had had recent successes, Dylan, Orbison (who would die suddenly of a heart attack on 6 December 1988) and Lynne had not seen an album climb that high in several years. At the time, no Dylan album had ever achieved two million in sales. As one critic put it, it was "one of the great commercial coups of the decade."
Most critics said the group's modest ambitions were fresh and relaxing. During 1989 and 1990 the album won many accolades, including a Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.
After George Harrison’s distribution deal with Warner Bros. expired in 1995, ownership of the Dark Horse Records catalog as well as the two Traveling Wilburys albums reverted to Harrison and the albums went out of print.[6] On June 12, 2007, Volume One and Vol. 3 were re-issued by Rhino Records as The Traveling Wilburys Collection, packaged together with bonus tracks and a DVD. The box set debuted at #1 on the UK Albums Chart and at #9 on The Billboard 200.
All songs were written by Traveling Wilburys.
According to statements by George Harrison in the documentary The True History of the Traveling Wilburys (filmed in 1988 about the making of the album and re-released on the bonus DVD included in The Traveling Wilburys Collection), the whole band gave various contributions to all songs, although each song was mainly written by a single member; the joint songwriting credit came from the fact that giving individualized credits looked egotistical.[7] However, the publishing credits on the Collection book are more revealing about the actual songwriter, as each of the credited publishers belongs to a single member. Thus, Harrison's Umlaut Corporation (formerly Ganga Publishing) is credited for "Handle with Care", "Heading for the Light", "End of the Line" and the bonus track "Maxine", identifying him as the main writer of those songs; Bob Dylan, credited via his Special Rider Music publisher, wrote "Dirty World" (according to Harrison's and Jeff Lynne's recollections on the documentary, Dylan and all the other band members gave their input to the song by pitching in funny lines to complete the lyric line "He loves your..."[7]), "Congratulations", the long narrative of "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" and the other bonus track, "Like a Ship"; Tom Petty, published by Gone Gator Music, wrote "Last Night" (again, with substantial lyrical contributions from the entire band [7]) and "Margarita"; finally, Jeff Lynne's publisher, Shard End Music (named after his birthplace), identifies him as the writer of "Rattled" and "Not Alone Any More".[8] The separation was not repeated for the publishing credits of Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3, which show all songs as being published by all four publishers.[8]
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 | Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal[9] | Won |
| Album of the Year[10] | Nominated |
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Traveling Wilburys (performer) | Favorite Pop/Rock New Artist[11] | Nominated |
| Region | Certification | Sales/shipments |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[12] | 6× Platinum | 600,000^ |
| Germany (BVMI)[13] | Gold | 250,000^ |
| Sweden (GLF)[14] | Gold | 50,000^ |
| Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[15] | Gold | 25,000x |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[16] | Platinum | 300,000^ |
| United States (RIAA)[17] | 3× Platinum | 3,000,000^ |
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^shipments figures based on certification alone |
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Chart positions
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Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
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| Preceded by Cocktail (soundtrack) by Various artists |
Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album February 13–26, 1989 |
Succeeded by Mystery Girl by Roy Orbison |
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