| The Traveling Wilburys | |
|---|---|
The Traveling Wilburys, 1988. L–R: Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, and Tom Petty. |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Malibu, California |
| Genres | Folk rock, country rock, heartland rock, rock |
| Years active | 1988–1990 |
| Labels | Wilbury / Warner Bros. |
| Associated acts | The Beatles, The Move, Electric Light Orchestra, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers |
| Website | www.travelingwilburys.com |
| Past members | |
| Bob Dylan George Harrison Jeff Lynne Tom Petty Roy Orbison Jim Keltner |
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The Traveling Wilburys (sometimes shortened to the Wilburys) were an English–American supergroup consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, accompanied by drummer Jim Keltner.[1] The band recorded two albums in 1988 and 1990, though Roy Orbison died before the second was recorded.
"Wilbury" was a slang term first used by Harrison during the recording of Cloud Nine with Jeff Lynne. Referring to recording errors created by some faulty equipment, Harrison jokingly remarked to Lynne, "We'll bury 'em in the mix".[1][2] Thereafter, they used the term for any small error in performance and the term was used again when the group were together. Harrison suggested "The Trembling Wilburys" as the group's name; instead, Lynne suggested "Traveling", with which the group agreed.[1]
Contents |
Starting with a meal among Roy Orbison, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne, the group came together at Bob Dylan's home studio in Malibu, California, to record an additional track as a B-side for the single release of Harrison's "This Is Love". Tom Petty's involvement came by chance, as Harrison had left his guitar at Petty's house and Petty came back with Harrison.[3] The record label, however, decided that the song that resulted, "Handle with Care", was too good to be released as a "single filler".
The members enjoyed working together so much that they decided to create a full album together. Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, written by all the members, was recorded over a ten-day period in May 1988, and released on October 18. The album was recorded in the house and garden of Eurythmics member Dave Stewart.[4] The "Wilburys" joke was extended further, with the band members credited under various pseudonyms and pretending to be half-brothers – sons of a fictional Charles Truscott Wilbury, Sr. The album was a critical and commercial success, spawning several successful singles and eventually reaching triple-platinum sales status in the US. The album was nominated for several awards and won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group in 1989.
Roy Orbison's death on December 6, 1988, brought the end of the original lineup. In tribute to Orbison, during the music video for "End of the Line", when Orbison sings, his guitar is shown rocking in a chair as the rest of the group play, followed by a brief shot focusing on a framed picture of him.
The Traveling Wilburys contributed the title track, "Nobody's Child", to the Romanian Angel Appeal benefit album Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal, released on July 24, 1990.
The final studio album by the Wilburys, intentionally misnumbered Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3, was released on October 30, 1990, but met with less success than the previous one. In the booklet contained in the 2007 box set, the album title is credited to "George being George";[5] apparently Harrison was making a wry reference to the appearance of a bootleg that served as a sort of "Volume 2".[6]
After his 1991 tour of Japan, George spoke of a Traveling Wilburys tour,
| “ | That would be something I'd like to experience. I've always played around in my own mind what a Wilburys tour could be. Would each person do a solo set and then do Wilburys at the end, or would we all go right on from beginning to end and make everything Wilburys? It's an intriguing thought. We could have a great band up there and the four of us could play acoustic if we wanted to. We could all sing "Blowin' In The Wind" and Bob could sing "Something". Or we could just sing our individual songs and make them Wilbury tunes, as if we'd recorded them that way. Whatever it was, we could do it. | ” |
The Wilburys tour never came about. Petty said about the Wilburys touring,
| “ | I think it would work, if we wanted to do it. I don't think we ever considered it, really. There were a lot of nights when the conversation would roll around to that. But I don't think anybody ever took it seriously. I think it would ruin it in a way. Then you're obligated to be responsible and it's not in the character of that group. It would make it very formal and that would be the wrong spirit. | ” |
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the two Traveling Wilburys albums had limited availability and were out of print in most areas. Harrison, as primary holder of the rights, did not reissue them before his death in 2001. In June 2007, the two albums were reissued as The Traveling Wilburys Collection, a box set including both albums on CD (with bonus tracks) and a DVD featuring a twenty-four minute band documentary and a collection of music videos.
The box set was released in three editions; the standard edition, with both CDs and DVD in a double Digipak package and a 16-page booklet; a "deluxe" boxed edition with the CDs and DVD and an extensive 40-page booklet, artist postcards, and photographs; or a "deluxe" boxed edition on vinyl. This version omits the DVD, but adds a 12" vinyl disc with rare versions of the songs.
The release debuted at #1 in the UK album charts[7] and the Australian album charts.[8] On the US Billboard 200 it reached #9. The collection sold 500,000 copies worldwide during the first three weeks and remained in the UK top 5 for seven weeks after its release.
Additional Traveling Wilburys named in the 2007 collection:
Keltner, the session drummer and percussionist, was not listed as a Wilbury in Volume 1 or Volume 3; however, he is in all of the music videos. In the DVD released in 2007, he is given the Wilbury nickname "Buster Sidebury". Overdubs to the bonus tracks "Maxine" and "Like a Ship" credit "Ayrton Wilbury", a pseudonym for Dhani Harrison. The pseudonym Ayrton was used in honor of the Harrisons' late family friend Ayrton Senna.
The lead guitar on the song "She's My Baby" (on Volume 3) was played by rock guitarist Gary Moore.
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales threshold) |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [9] |
AUS [10] |
AUT [11] |
NOR [12] |
NZ [13] |
SWE [14] |
SWI [15] |
UK [16] |
|||
| Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 16 | ||
| Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 |
|
11 | 14 | 22 | 3 | 19 | 5 | 18 | 14 | |
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales threshold) |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [9] |
AUS [10] |
AUT [11] |
NOR [12] |
NZ [13] |
SWE [14] |
SWI [15] |
UK [16] |
|||
| The Traveling Wilburys Collection |
|
9 | 1 | 24 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 45 | 1 | |
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [23] |
US Main [24] |
US AC [25] |
AUS [26] |
CAN [27] |
NZ [28] |
UK [16] |
|||
| 1988 | "Handle with Care" | 45 | 2 | 30 | 3 | — | 4 | 21 | Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 |
| 1989 | "End of the Line" | 63 | 2 | 28 | 12 | — | 11 | 52 | |
| 1990 | "She's My Baby" | — | 2 | — | 45 | 30 | — | 79 | Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 |
| 1991 | "Wilbury Twist" | — | 46 | — | — | 86 | — | — | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Main [24] |
CAN [27] |
NZ [28] |
UK [16] |
||||||
| 1988 | "Last Night" | 5 | — | — | — | Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 | |||
| 1989 | "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" | 41 | — | — | — | ||||
| "Heading for the Light" | 7 | — | — | — | |||||
| 1990 | "Nobody's Child" | — | — | 9 | 44 | Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal | |||
| "Inside Out" | 16 | 50 | — | — | Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 | ||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
| Book: Traveling Wilburys | |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
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