travelling wilburys record sales

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TRAVELING WILBURYS album sales

TRAVELING WILBURYS sold over 6,414,859 albums, including 4,250,000 in the United States and 700,000 in the United Kingdom. The best-selling album by TRAVELING WILBURYS is THE TRAVELING WILBURYS VOLUME 1 , which sold over 4,399,903 copies .

Related artists: BOB DYLAN , ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA , GEORGE HARRISON , JEFF LYNNE'S ELO , ROY ORBISON , TOM PETTY

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TRAVELING WILBURYS

Traveling wilburys songs stats, traveling wilburys albums stats, traveling wilburys news.

Official Singles Chart

HANDLE WITH CARE TRAVELING WILBURYS

END OF THE LINE TRAVELING WILBURYS

NOBODY'S CHILD TRAVELING WILBURYS

SHE'S MY BABY TRAVELING WILBURYS

Official Albums Chart

THE TRAVELLING WILBURYS TRAVELING WILBURYS

THE TRAVELLING WILBURYS VOLUME 3 TRAVELING WILBURYS

COLLECTION TRAVELING WILBURYS

• Weeks: 19 ,
• Weeks No. 1: 1

Official Singles Downloads Chart

Official physical singles chart, official scottish albums chart.

• Weeks: 22 ,
• Weeks No. 1: 2

THE TRAVELING WILBURYS - VOL 1 TRAVELING WILBURYS

Official Albums Sales Chart

Official album downloads chart, official physical albums chart, official vinyl albums chart, official record store chart, end of year albums chart, official country artists albums chart.

The data displayed for this chart goes back to 1994, however we hope to be able to offer deeper historic information at a future point

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THE HISTORY OF THE TRAVELING WILBURYS

Which one do you believe..., by mo ostin.

The birth of the Traveling Wilburys was a happy accident. Warner Bros. Records’ International Department had asked that George Harrison come up with a B-side for “This Is Love,” a single from his Cloud Nine album. At the time it was customary to couple an A-side with a never-before-heard track, giving the single extra sales value.

This was mid-1988. Cloud Nine was just out. George, along with cowriter Jeff Lynne and their friends Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison, had been hanging out in Dylan’s studio. I suppose George figured that as long as his pals were on hand, why not use them to knock off this flipside?

A couple of days later George came by my office to play the new “B-side.” We went next door to A&R head Lenny Waronker’s office so he could hear it too. George played us “Handle With Care.” Our reaction was immediate. This was a song we knew could not be wasted on some B-side. Roy Orbison’s vocal was tremendous. I really loved the beautiful guitar figure that George played. The guys had really nailed it. Lenny and I stumbled over each others’ words, asking, “Can’t we somehow turn this into an album?” (I also had a suspicion that perhaps George had been hungering for another band experience.)

We urged him on. George felt the spontaneity of it, felt its driving force. He always had great instincts. Being as smart as he was he had a remarkable ability to pull people together. Think about The Concert For Bangladesh — only George Harrison could have made that happen.

Once the idea of a full, collaborative album was in front of us, George took over. The five frontmen (Harrison, Lynne, Petty, Dylan, and Orbison) decided not to use their own names. George and Jeff had been calling studio equipment (limiters, equalizers) “wilburys.” So first they named their fivesome The Trembling Wilburys. Jeff suggested “Traveling” instead. Everyone agreed.

The group was born: five guys with star stature in their own rights, but it was George who created this Wilbury environment where five stars could enjoy an ego-free collaboration. Everybody sang, everybody wrote, everybody produced — and had great fun doing so.

You can hear George’s humility and good nature reflected in the Wilburys and their music. To my thinking, this was a perfect collaboration. All five were good friends who admired and respected one another. Roy Orbison was somebody they all idolized. Of course, they revered Bob Dylan too. But Bob was closer to being their contemporary, so it was Roy who gave the project that special glow from rock ’n’ roll’s early formative years.

Reflecting on all this, I recall a few years before when my wife Evelyn and I had been in London. George had invited us to his house, Friar Park, to celebrate Evelyn’s birthday. Roy was a houseguest there at the time, so perhaps this could have been an early hint leading to the Wilburys. So, too, might it have been the time Tom, George, and Jeff (Bob wasn’t able to make it, as he’d just injured his hand) came to dinner at our house a year or so before “Handle With Care.” For us, Tom had played a new song, as yet unrecorded, called “Free Fallin’,” backed by his two future Wilbury mates. Lenny and I loved the song so much we asked Tom and the guys to do it at least three times that evening.

Perhaps even then they all were Wilburys. They just didn’t know their last name yet.

With the huge international success — over five million copies sold — of Traveling Wilburys, Volume 1 , a follow-up was inevitable. George, being George, titled the second album The Traveling Wilburys, Volume 3 . Sadly, by this time Roy had died, but there was still great excitement when we visited the Wilburys, recording in the Wallace Neff-designed house at the top of Coldwater Canyon. Being with those guys, in that setting — truly memorable.

I’m glad that a song that had once been destined for semiobscurity as a B-side became the catalyst for something so lasting and joyful. Rolling Stone magazine named Traveling Wilburys, Volume 1 one of the 100 Best Albums of All Time.

Mo Ostin Chairman Emeritus Warner Bros. Records 2007

By Tiny Hampton

The etymological origins of The Traveling Wilburys have aroused something of a controversy amongst academic circles. Did they, as Professor “Bobby” Sinfield believes, originate from the various Wilbury Fairs which traveled Europe in Medieval times, titillating the populace with contemporary ballads, or were they rather derived from, “YE TRAVELING WILBURYS”, who were popular locksmiths during the Crusades and used to pick or unlock the jammed chastity belts (rather like today’s emergency plumbers.)

Dr. Arthur Noseputty of Cambridge believes they were closely related to the Strangling Dingleberries, which is not a group but a disease. I think this can be discounted, not only because of his silly name but also from his habit of impersonating Ethel Merman during lectures. Some have even gone on to suggest tenuous links with The Pillsburys, the group who invented Flour Power.

Dim Sun, a Chinese academic, argues that they may be related to “THE STROLLING TILBURYS”, Queen Elizabeth the first’s favourite minstrels, and backs this suspicion with the observation that The Traveling Wilburys is an obvious anagram of “V. BURYING WILL’S THEATRE”, clearly a reference to the closing of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre by Villiers during an outbreak of the plague. This would account for the constant traveling. Indeed, many victims of the plague and St.Vitus’ dance literally danced themselves to death, and it is this dancing theme that resurfaces with The Wilbury Twist. Not a cocktail but a dance craze, reminiscent of The Wilbury Quadrille made famous at Bath in 1790 by Beau Diddley, and the Wilbury Waltz, which swept Vienna in the 1890’s.

One thing, however, remains certain. The circumambulatory peregrinations of these itinerant mundivagant peripatetic nomads has already disgorged one collection of popular lyrical cantata, which happily encapsulated their dithyrambic antiphonic contrapuntal threnodies as a satisfactory auricular experience for the hedonistic gratification of the hoi-polloi on a popular epigraphically inscribed gramophonic recording. Now here’s another one.

Professor “TINY” Hampton is currently leading the search for Intelligent Life amongst Rock Journalism at the University of Please Yourself, California.

By Hugh Jampton

The original Wilburys were a stationary people who, realizing that their civilization could not stand still forever, began to go for short walks — not the “traveling”, as we now know it, but certainly as far as the corner and back. They must have taken to motion, in much the same way as penguins were at that time taking to ledges, for the next we hear of them they were going out for the day (often taking lunch or a picnic). Later, we don’t as yet know how much later, some intrepid Wilburys began to go away for the weekend, leaving late Friday and coming back Sunday. It was they who evolved simple rhythmic forms to describe their adventures.

A remarkable sophisticated musical culture developed, considering there were no managers or agents, and the further the Wilburys traveled the more adventurous their music became, and the more it was revered by the elders of the tribe who believed it had the power to stave off madness, turn brunettes into blondes and increase the size of their ears.

As the Wilburys began to go further and further in their search for musical inspiration they found themselves the object of interest among many less developed species — nightclub owners, tour operators and recording executives. To the Wilburys, who had only just learnt to cope with wives, roadies and drummers, it was a blow from which many of them never recovered.

A tiny handful survived — the last of the Traveling Wilburys — and the songs gathered here represent the popular laments, the epic and heroic tales, which characterize the apotheosis of the elusive Wilbury sound. The message of the music travels, as indeed they traveled and as I myself must now travel for further treatment. Good listening, good night and let thy Wilbury be done . . .

Hugh Jampton, E.F. Norti-Bitz Reader in Applied Jacket, University of Krakatoa (East of Java)

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‘Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1’ at 30: Inside the Supergroup to End All Supergroups

"A happy accident" was how Mo Ostin described the formation of the Traveling Wilburys, the beloved supergroup comprised of Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Bob Dylan whose…

By Ron Hart

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“A happy accident” was how Mo Ostin described the formation of the Traveling Wilburys, the beloved supergroup comprised of Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Bob Dylan whose debut LP The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 was released 30 years ago (and comes out in a special edition on Nov. 2 ).

“Warner Bros. Records’ International Department had asked that George Harrison come up with a B-side for ‘This Is Love,’ a single from his Cloud Nine album. At the time it was customary to couple an A-side with a never-before-heard track, giving it extra sales value,” the Warner Bros. chairman emeritus wrote in the liner notes of 2007’s The Traveling Wilburys Collection box set. “ Cloud Nine was just out. George, along with cowriter Jeff Lynne and their friends Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison, had been hanging out in Dylan’s studio. I suppose George figured that as long as his pals were on hand, why not use them to knock off this flipside?”

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Two days later, Harrison presented Ostin with “Handle With Care,” a song that combined the personalities of all five men in the room into a jangly slice of classic rock heaven that immediately won over both himself and A&R head Lenny Waronker.

“Our reaction was immediate,” Ostin wrote. “This was a song we knew could not be wasted on some B-side…The guys had really nailed it. Lenny and I stumbled over each other’s words asking, ‘Can’t we somehow turn this into an album?'”

“A remarkable sophisticated musical culture developed, considering there were no managers or agents, and the further the Wilburys traveled the more adventurous their music became,” the legend stated. “And the more it was revered by the elders of the tribe who believed it had the power to stave off madness, turn brunettes into blondes and increase the size of their ears.”

There was a sixth Wilbury as well, Harrison’s longtime drummer Jim Keltner, who was just as visible in the group’s promotional material and music videos as the main quintet. He was given the handle “Buster Sidebury,” and arrived at Stewart’s compound to begin recording Vol. 1 , quickly realizing just how loose the sessions were going to be.  

“I had already quit drinking and smoking and all that stuff by then,” he recalls. “But George and Jeff would be drinking beers and getting a little silly. And they were laughing a lot. I’ve made a lot of my friends laugh over the years by listening to them being sober. My dad always used to say, when he was in the army, how the limeys would always have a screwy sense of humor. But once you got to know George especially, he was so into Monty Python and all those British comedies. And he had all those records and would play them for me, and I finally started getting the hang of it. But that night they were so silly talking about traveling Willoughbys, and just knocking themselves out with laughter. I’m listening to them and telling them, ‘Jesus, how could you think this is funny?’ I was just enjoying the fact they were having a good time.”

In fact, Keltner found himself succumbing to the revelry while the Wilburys were coming up with the music for the Lynne-led rockabilly cut “Rattled,” as dutifully showcased in the 24-minute documentary The True History of The Traveling Wilburys,  when he began playing out a rhythm on the house refrigerator.

“I was in the fridge at a time when Jeff and George were hanging out in the kitchen,” he explains. “I went in to get something to drink, and I was doing an overdub at the time and had my split sticks on me, which are like these wooden brushes. So I had them in my hand while I was looking for something to drink and probably screwing around with them — I like tapping on stuff when I have sticks in my hand. And I think I was scraping the wooden brushes against the fridge, and somebody made a comment about how I should play that on the track. So I got real serious about it, and started moving eggs around and tamales and whatever they had in there to tune it a little bit and Jeff loved it and said, ‘Put a mic on it.’ Jeff knows how to get a feel out of anything.”

The sessions for the first Wilburys album also gave Keltner the rare opportunity to hang out with Dylan — whom he had toured with throughout his Born Again period — in a more relaxed atmosphere. It was a vibe that would provide the levity of such Dylan-led numbers as “Dirty World,” “Congratulations” and “Tweeter and the Monkey Man” in ways you didn’t experience on his proper albums.

“You don’t get to have that personal time with Bob very often,” he asserts. “Because it was the Wilburys, I had a ball with him. He’s so fucking funny when he’s on his own and relaxed. I had so much fun listening to him talk about various things. He’s a very funny guy, and people don’t know that side of him. The thing I enjoyed the most about working on Vol. 1 was getting Bob to talk. I was very close with George and Tom I had known since he was literally a kid. So it was normal for me being around those guys. And Jeff was a very shy guy who didn’t talk much anyway. But Bob was the one; some people were intimidated by Bob and being around him. They didn’t want to talk much because they didn’t want to sound stupid around him. But I knew Bob a lot better than that, and just getting him to open up and talk was so much fun. I had a camera on me and I remember he grabbed my camera a few times and started shooting things. I actually have footage of that somewhere; I wish I had marked it all.”

“Roy had gone from being kind of chunky with a goiter in his throat or something that he had for years and wearing his hair like it was a hat,” Keltner explains of Orbison’s appearance in the early-to-mid 80s. “And then he had a makeover; I think his wife got him to do it. So after not seeing him for a while, everybody was shocked at his appearance when he arrived for the Wilburys sessions. I remember standing with a couple of the guys in the room across from where he was recording the vocals for ‘You’re Not Alone Anymore,’ and we were watching him. And it was the most amazing thing. First of all, he looked great; he lost weight. They did an operation on his neck so that growth was gone, and he did his hair like a Samurai. He looked fantastic, and my last conversation with him was complimenting him on how great he looked and how was he doing it. And he told me, ‘Oh man, I’m on a new diet. I can eat all the gravy and bacon I want.’ I had been health conscious for a few years prior to the Wilburys recordings, so I knew he was talking about the Atkins Diet. And it was just too extreme, and sure enough it got him. I think he died at the dinner table.”

The band shot the video for Vol. 1 ‘s second single, “End of the Line,” following Orbison’s death. In line with the Wilbury style, it was filmed on a soundstage made to look like a boxcar train, with Roy prominently displayed in the form of a framed photo and a rocking chair with his signature guitar sitting in his place. For Keltner, the gravitas of that set gave a serious amount of weight to his absence. If you got the feels from watching the video from home, the sorrow felt by the men during the shoot was tenfold.

“It was a strange and sad experience shooting the video,” the drummer describes. “It was surreal, actually, because you’re there for hours and hours doing multiple takes, and there was that chair with the guitar on it the whole time by itself.”

The Traveling Wilburys would convene once again as a four-piece in 1990 with the cheekily titled Vol. 3 (both Mystery Girl and Petty’s 1989 solo debut Full Moon Fever have long been hypothesized by fans as the unofficial second volume of the series given the involvement of all or most of band members). However, despite the success of its rockin’ lead single “She’s My Baby,” the album failed to properly capture familial flavor that made its 1988 predecessor an off-kilter classic. For Keltner, the difference is clearly attributed to the presence of Orbison.

“Roy was the absolute reason why they even came together in the first place,” he admits. “They all loved George and would have certainly come together for him. But with Roy, it was a no-brainer. The first album had this magic to it, and that was all Roy. They were all icons in their own way, but it was Roy who kept them having fun and knowing they were doing something special.”

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"One of those magical instances of capturing lightning in a bottle": Vol. 1 by Traveling Wilburys - Album Of The Week Club review

The traveling wilburys originally came together to record a george harrison b-side, but ended up writing and recording a whole album.

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

Handle With Care Dirty World Rattled Last Night Not Alone Any More Congratulations Heading For The Light Margarita Tweeter And The Monkey Man End Of The Line 

When people complain about overuse of the word 'Supergroup', it's not the Traveling Wilburys they're talking about. For this was a band so super that  Tom Petty  and  Jeff Lynne  were the junior partners. 

The rest?  Bob Dylan . Roy Orbison. Oh yeah, and that George Harrison from The Beatles . 

"One night, George and I had a bit of a smoke and a drink, and he said: 'You and I should have a group,' Jeff told us. "I said: 'Who should we have in it?' 'Bob Dylan,' he said. 'Oh yeah, okay... Bob Dylan... What about Roy Orbison as well, then?' And we both suggested Tom Petty. I didn’t imagine it would actually happen. But it did. 

"It was so easy it was unbelievable. Everybody said yes immediately, without even questioning it. Roy was thrilled to bits, and I then got to be pals with him. He’d moved to Malibu, just a few miles up the road from where I lived, and called me one day: 'Hi Jeff, it’s Roy. I’m ready to work!'"

They originally came together originally to record a Harrison B-side, but ended up writing and recording a whole album. And from a distance of 35 years the original session – Vol. 1 – still sounds a little underplayed and a little over-produced (Lynne’s ELO-style sheen doesn’t quite match the rootsy flavour of the songs) but it's undeniably good humoured. 

Handle With Care , in which all five members take vocal leads, is the highlight, there’s a great Springsteen parody in Tweeter And The Monkey Man , and Dylan gets loose and at his joyful best on the wonderful Dirty World .

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Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute. 

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Other albums released in October 1988

• Talk Is Cheap - Keith Richards
• Blood Fire Death - Bathory
• Barcelona - Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé
• Rattle and Hum - U2
• The Land of Rape and Honey - Ministry
• Copperhead Road - Steve Earle
• Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth
• Everything - The Bangles
• Look Sharp! - Roxette
• QR - Quiet Riot
• I Am Kurious Oranj - The Fall
• Rage - T'Pau
• The Serpent's Egg - Dead Can Dance
• In the Spirit of Things - Kansas
• Till I Loved You Barbra Streisand -
• Living Years - Mike + The Mechanics
• Bug - Dinosaur Jr.
• Choba B CCCP - Paul McCartney
• Ultramega OK - Soundgarden
• Amnesia - Richard Thompson
• Fisherman's Blues - The Waterboys

What they said...

" Handle With Care " and End of the Line are the two masterworks here, although Roy's showcase, Not Alone Anymore – more grand and moving than anything on the Lynne-produced Mystery Girl – comes close in the stature, but its stylised melodrama is a ringer here: it, along with Dylan's offhand heartbreak tune Congratulations , is the only slow thing here, and the rest of the album just overspills with good vibes." ( AllMusic )

"While the Wilburys were intended as a lark, songs like Heading for the Light , Not Alone Any More and Handle With Care offer idealistic, romantic messages from a fraternity of rock graybeards. ' Well, it's alright, riding around in the breeze/Well, it's alright, if you live the life you please , says the opening lyric to End of the Line . It is a comforting notion indeed, as the uptight, conformist Eighties draw to a close." ( Rolling Stone )

"The clumsy conceit – has-been supersession masquerading as family road band – produces more or less the mishmash you'd expect. Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan have never sung like brothers to anyone, much less each other, leaving Tom Petty's chameleon, Jeff Lynne's teddy boy, and George Harrison's dork to blend as best they can. Harrison's the only lead guitarist; Lynne plays not piano or Hammond B-3 but a marooned synthesiser; Orbison and Harrison take solo turns on songs that obviously belong on their own sorry albums." ( Robert Christgau )

What you said...

Greg Schwepe: In our household, The Traveling Wilburys' Vol. I could also be known as “The Blank Album” or “The Whiteout Album.” That’s because the cassette was played so much the white paint listing the tracks was worn off, leaving us to have to stick the cassette in the car player to determine what side was what because we couldn’t even tell by looking. Pretty sure there were long stretches where there may have been some arm wrestling to see who could keep it in their car to listen on the way to work. My wife won, more often than not.

To me this incredible album of five superstars had its genesis with George Harrison’s Cloud Nine album. Totally played the heck out of that one, and it was produced by…well, one Jeff Lynne. And when I immediately heard Handle With Care and George taking the lead on most of it, I was sold. Also didn't hurt that New World Record and Out Of The Blue were owned and played a ton growing up. Oh, and Tom Petty's Damn The Torpedoes .

While each member; George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, and Roy Orbison all take the lead on various songs, the interplay lets you know this is a total group situation as you have each of them singing a line or two or adding background vocals. 

And then, well I’d heard of Roy Orbison, and by the end of this album, I really knew who was. Dang, that’s a voice! And we get Tom Petty, adding yet another great dimension to the album. And him and Jeff Lynne kept the party going on Full Moon Fever .

When this album was released I was more familiar with the spoof performances of Bob Dylan’s songs where I had seen comedians do a nasally imitation or from skits on Saturday Night Live . But now I was a total Dylan fan as Tweeter and The Monkey Man turned out to be one of my favourite tracks.

Just out and out feel-good music. You figure you get this much talent together you might mess up the end product, but not in this case. 9 out of 10 for me on this one. End of The Line brought about a fine ending to this little gem.

John Davidson : The idea behind the Travelling Wilburys reflects George Harrison's ethos of gentleness and friendship and the band of brothers Wilbury that he and Jeff Lynne assembled gel pretty well to play stripped back listenable rock'n'roll infused with an early-70s sensibility.

The curse of the supergroup may be mitigated to a degree by the fact that they are genuinely icons and genuinely doing it for the fun of it, but that's largely where my enjoyment ends. Without the hook of being a major fan of any of the participants it struck me at the time as an exercise in nostalgia for Beatles enthusiasts .

Dylan has had all the rough edges polished off and only Tweeter And The Monkey Man has a hint at his lyrical edge. Tom Petty is the clear winner in terms of sounds that he would go on to replicate in subsequent albums to good effect I never understood the appeal of Roy Orbison so his inclusion in the group was baffling to me and remains so today. (I read that Tom Petty was a huge fan).

Inoffensive nostalgic rock has its place, I guess, but I'd listen to the work of Petty, Dylan, ELO and The Beatles before I ever got round to putting this on again.

Uli Hassinger : I bought this record the year it was released. In the mid 90s I changed to CDs and gave all the records away. This was one of the albums I did not buy new as a CD because I wasn't very impressed of it. So this was the first listening for almost 30 years.

The album contains three really good songs which are Handle With Care , Not Alone Anymore and Tweeter And The Monkey Man . I especially like the remarkable old school singing of Roy Orbison. Tweeter belongs amongst Dylan's very best songs. Handle With Care has this Beatles vibe and the different voices match brilliantly.

Congratulations and Heading For The Light are ok too. But the other five songs are more or less a waste of time, totally inexpressive. It's like too many cooks spoiled the broth. Therefore it's a 5/10.

Alex Hayes: One of those magical instances of capturing lightning in a bottle, The Travelling Wilburys' Vol. 1 is an absolutely delightful record.

There was a period, around the time of the release of this album, where me, my Dad and his second wife Gail were in the habit of taking the car up to the Lake District most weekends to take in the scenery, and occasionally stop over. This album was a major part of the soundtrack to those days, and hearing any one of these songs immediately puts me in mind of shimmering lakes, winding lanes, beautiful sweeping valleys and great weekends staying at the Fish Inn up in Buttermere. No wonder I have such a fondness for this record!

For anyone that's been living on Mars for the last fifty years, The Travelling Wilburys were a supergroup composed of five legends of rock, all performing under the pseudonyms of the titular 'Wilbury' family. We've got Nelson (George Harrison), Otis (Jeff Lynne), Lefty (Roy Orbison), Charlie T. Jr. (Tom Petty) and Lucky (Bob Dylan). The group had been formed in a suitably off-the-cuff fashion by Harrison in April 1988. The original modest intentions for this union had been to throw together a song for the b-side to one of Harrison's singles, but, when completed, the resulting Handle With Care was far, far too good to be wasted in that fashion. Matters escalated, and we ended up with The Travelling Wilburys Vol. 1 .

There are several reasons why The Travelling Wilburys Vol. 1 works so well. Everything obviously hinges on the quality of the songs, and Vol. 1 is no slouch in that department (the aforementioned Handle With Care, End Of The Line, Heading For The Light and Tweeter And The Monkey Man being particular standouts). The album plays to each Wilbury's strengths, and there is enough room across the 10 tracks for each member to shine. There is also a surprisingly pleasing blend between the differing vocal styles. The harsher vocals from Petty and Dylan somehow sit remarkably well alongside the sweeter tones from Harrison and Orbison.

The album's single greatest strength however is just how upbeat and buoyant the music comes across as. I used the word 'modest' earlier, and it's an adjective that also sums up the intentions of this album very well. There are no highfalutin ambitions on display here. It's just the sound of five great artists having fun creating music together. That spontaneity and camaraderie really come across to the listener. The music here oozes positive. 'good time' vibes, regardless of any of the lyrical content.

That infectiousness rubbed off on the general public big style too. The Travelling Wilburys Vol. 1 was an immediate hit, helping to give the careers of all the individual Wilburys a shot in the arm. Sadly, only two months after the album's release, tragedy then struck. In December 1988, Roy Orbison passed away, just as his sterling contributions to Vol. 1 were starting to get noticed. Orbison's absence was certainly felt on the inevitable follow-up album. Two years later, the four remaining Wilburys attempted to capture that lightning again, and failed.

That sequel was rather cheekily titled The Travelling Wilburys Vol. 3 . It was a practical joke that fooled quite a few people, including my Dad ('I don't remember them making a second one, do you?'). It's not a bad record, but nowhere near as charming as Vol. 1 . It misses Orbison's falsetto, and I'm convinced Dylan was pissed up during the recording sessions. His vocals certainly come across that way in places. Vol. 3 was nothing like the commercial smash of the first album, and, taking the hint, the Wilburys retired, each remaining member returning to focus on their solo career (or, in Lynne's case, production).

Perhaps the member of the Wilburys that capitalised best on the success of Vol. 1 was Tom Petty, whose next two albums ( Full Moon Fever and Into The Great Wide Open ) had more than a little of a Wilburys feel about them, and sold millions. Fine records they both are too. It's no coincidence that Lynne produced both. Petty passed away six years ago today. I'll never forget the date, as it was also on my birthday. Talk about unwanted birthday gifts.

The Travelling Wilburys Vol. 1 will always be an album I hold dear. It's often been the case that I'll be out somewhere and the opening chords of Handle With Care will start playing on the jukebox, immediately brightening up my evening. Of all the supergroups that rock music has thrown together down the years, I doubt another will ever possess the charm and personality of The Travelling Wilburys. A complete one off.

Richard Cardenas: Excellent record. One that still brings me joy. 10.

Alejandro Bravo : Great album.

Matt Roy : Great album!

Paul De Maria Mañas: Magical. It was an instant classic for me at the time and it has just got better. 10/10

David Williams : Corker.

Diego Figueira : 10/10.

Mike Canoe: Is Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 the most "dad rock" album ever? Quite possibly. At the time, Tom Petty was the only one whose music I was into. Everyone else seemed removed from me by at least a generation, in Roy Orbison's case, two.

When it came out, it seemed like a quirky way for a bunch of old guys to get together and goof off and have some fun. My opinion hasn't changed much but I enjoy the music much more now. Of course, I've also aged squarely into their target demographic.

Bob Dylan was in a rough patch for most of the '80s but two of his three songs resonate with me the most now. While I've read that Tweeter And The Monkey Man was a gentle parody of Bruce Springsteen, aside from the numerous "Jerseyisms," it sounds like one of Dylan's better rambling story songs. On Dirty World , he sounds like he's having more fun than he's had in a couple of decades.

Ultimately, it's a fun album by world-class musicians and songwriters riffing off each other and rocking, if gently, out of one decade into another.

Philip Qvist : I was a huge fan of ELO, liked Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and of course you have the legends that is the Beatles - even if I preferred George Harrison as a 60s and 70s songwriter, rather than as an 80s one. That said, I preferred Bob Dylan as a songwriter rather than as a singer, while I never really got into Roy Orbison. So when you get these five legends together, what do you get? An ego fueled mess, a classic or a bit of a mixed bag?

Well actually, what you do get is a pretty good album - even if it didn't totally set my pulse racing, or make me put this record on my list of Essential Classic Albums.

There are some great songs on it - I still like Handle With Care, Last Night and End Of The Line ; and with this group of gifted songwriters you are hardly going to get a dud song on The Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 .

I don't necessarily feel that all the songs mesh together, but that is hardly a surprise - and overall it is a rather good and enjoyable album that brings out memories of the late 80s, when I was still trying to find my own place in life.

Oh - and it does seem to be an album made by guys who were just there to have fun; after leaving their egos at the front door. It was probably the main reason for Vol 1 's ultimate success.

Wade Babineau : Harrison had the success of Cloud Nine , Petty was back in form with Southern Accents and Orbison was marking a late career comeback. Dylan had completed a tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1987 and Lynne was working producer magic with the aforementioned Cloud Nine , Orbison's Mystery Girl album and laying down work that would result in Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever . They were all chatting amongst each other and the resulting album is a stars align moment. 

Everyone gets their moment to sing and for my money there's not a bum track in the lot. Pleasantly surprising is the vocal effort of Dylan. He seemed engaged and having a great time in the studio and I think working with artists that were similar in their age and being around a legend like Orbison really pushed him to up the vocal game. Sadly Roy Orbison would pass away a few months after this album. Handle With Care, and End Of The Line were the hit songs on the charts, but the deeper cuts are just as well crafted. Not Alone Any More still sends a shiver. Tweeter And The Monkey Man remains a classic story song and Rattled makes the feet move everytime. 10/10.

Jacob Tannehill : The forces were aligned on this one. Not a bad song in the bunch. Those whose career needed a boost, got one, and those that maintained, continued! I still sing all the lyrics today. 10/10.

Chris Elliott : Dinner party rock guaranteed not to upset. It's not awful but it doesn't even come close to any of the individuals' best work - leaving it rather pointless as a record. It is very much more misty eyed nostalgia than anything else

Gary Claydon: A bunch of rock and pop giants having a ball and who could begrudge 'em that. Pleasant, undemanding, mildly diverting. I'd gladly listen to any of the individuals involved any day of the week but The Travelling Wilburys has never left a lasting impression. Ultimately, it's comfort blanket rock. Best bits, Harrison's guitar, Petty, Lynne's production. 5/10.

Mark Herrington : An album that meanders through the neural pathways , like a favourite local footpath. It’s familiar and undemanding , but there are no views to take your breath away or, steep ascents to make the heart beat faster. What it sets out to do, it does well though.

Final score: 8.22 (158 votes cast, total score 1299)

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The rock supergroup was comprised of Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, and Tom Petty.

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They must have been the ultimate Anglo-American supergroup, though that was never their avowed intention. Traveling Wilburys actually fell together by accident. The kismet can be linked to George Harrison and Jeff Lynne’s fortuitous meet in Los Angeles in spring of 1988, with the former looking for studio time to record a B-side. Mutual friends Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan would join the former Beatle and the Move/ELO stalwart, and then, as if that weren’t mind-boggling enough, George was doing some business at Tom Petty ’s house, and the laidback Floridian hopped aboard. Well, you would, wouldn’t you, given that lot’s track record!

In keeping with Harrison’s love of a practical joke and well-chosen pseudonym (or alibi), the quintet adopted alter egos: George became Nelson; Lynne settled on Otis; Dylan plumped for Lucky; Roy took the country option with Lefty; and Petty’s handle was the grand-sounding Charlie T, Jr. While they made two albums, they would never use their real identities. Old masters of the masquerade for sure, but the two discs they left behind – the second was recorded in the wake of Roy Orbison’s posthumously released album Mystery Girl (Roy died in 1988, aged just 52) – are packed with great songs, some real Dylan gems, classic Harrison licks and a smooth country-rock sound courtesy of Petty and Lynne’s studio expertise and genius for harmony and melody. Both albums are recommended for discovery, particularly if you are a fan of any of the above – chances are, you love ’em all.

While they were only properly extant during the years 1988 to 1990, Traveling Wilburys had plenty of previous. George Harrison was pondering what to do after releasing his Cloud Nine album and, during a radio interview in LA, he conversationally dropped the bombshell that he’d like to link up with some mates. He already had the concept, since the name Traveling Wilburys had been an in-joke for him and Jeff Lynne. The idea snowballed and became a reality. Over a meal with Roy Orbison, it was decided to put plans into place and Bob Dylan was contacted for the use of his Malibu studio. As luck would have it Bob wanted in, and when Harrison went to collect a guitar he’d stashed at Tom Petty’s home, he too expressed an interest in joining the session that resulted in ‘Handle With Care’.

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This song was deemed so good that it was used to open the Wilburys’ debut album,  Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 . That track became their most successful single, with high placing in the US, UK and Australia. A definitive country-rock’n’roller with a descending folk-rock chord sequence and an opening salvo that recalled ELO’s ‘10358 Overture’, ‘Handle With Care’ was completed with drummer Jim Keltner.

The album proper would be certified triple-platinum and won great acclaim. Dylan’s ‘Dirty World’, ‘Congratulations’, ‘Tweeter And The Monkey Man’ (a hilarious trip through the mythology of Bruce Springsteen ’s blue-collar hinterlands) and the reissue bonus track ‘Like A Ship’ are the equals of anything the man unleashed around that time. George fans were also delighted by ‘Heading For The Light’ (another bonus track that’s essential to catch is ‘Maxine’). With Roy Orbison bringing in his archetypal weepie ‘Not Alone Any More’, Tom Petty draggin’ on ‘Last Night’ and Lynne delighting all with his powerful ‘Rattled’, the set exceeded all expectations. Sometimes this kind of project can fall flat on its backside, but the Wilburys pulled it off with ease. The group effort ‘End Of The Line’, with its rhythmic freight-train delivery, is particularly poignant since it was released as a single a month after Orbison’s death. (The Wilbury’s next single was a cover of ‘Nobody’s Child’, a song The Beatles had covered in Hamburg in 1961 with Tony Sheridan. It was gifted to the benefit album, Nobody’s Child: Romanian Angel Appeal , released in July 1990.)

Though events surrounding Orbison’s unexpected demise caused the remaining four Wilburys to take stock, they had the Wilbury bug, and the second album, confusingly called Traveling Wilburys Vol 3 (a piece of Monty Pythonesque espionage hammered home by the fact Michael Palin wrote liner notes for the debut, and Eric Idle did the same for the new recordings) was rushed out in Autumn of 1990 while lead-off single ‘She’s My Baby’ was on the airwaves. Featuring Gary Moore on lead guitar, Jim Horn on sax, Ray Cooper on percussion and Keltner (aka Buster Sidebury) behind the kit, this joint effort was credited to four new folks: Clayton (Lynne), Spike (Harrison), Boo (Dylan) and Muddy (Petty).

Once again, Dylan stepped up to the plate with some exceptional songwriting. ‘If You Belonged To Me’ and ‘Where Were You Last Night?’ are full of his colloquial genius, and ‘7 Deadly Sins’ is vintage Bob. Petty stretched out more here too, combining with Dylan on ‘Inside Out’ and bossing the room on ‘Cool Dry Place’ and ‘You Took My Breath Away’. The George’n’Jeff camaraderie shines through on ‘New Blue Moon’; the closing dance number ‘Wilbury Twist’ (“Grace is the key to successful dancing,” according to Eric Idle’s notes) was a fitting finale. The reissue bonus tracks restore ‘Nobody’s Child’ to the fold, while there’s a stirring corer of the Del Shannon hit ‘Runaway’ (tying in with the fact that Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers were working on a new album with the great man, Drop Down And Get Me – and very fine that was as well).

Both of the Wilburys’ essentially good-natured and entertaining albums are also available on the box set The Traveling Wilburys Collection , with a DVD featuring their five music videos, a tongue-in-cheek documentary called The True History Of The Traveling Wilburys (rest assured, it’s not) and a choice of formats including the desirable deluxe edition, linen-bound and containing a collectable book for the connoisseur. You might then hunt down the vinyl edition since that comes with a bonus 12” featuring some extended versions and a great remix of ‘Not Alone Anymore’. The box was issued six years after George’s death; his son Dhani plays lead guitar on Bob Dylan’s ‘Like A Ship’ and adds backing vocals to that and the reconfigured ‘Maxine’, a song that his father had written, so bringing the project to a suitable close.

Grand sales and sterling press aside, it’s worth pointing out that Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group in 1989. The pity is that this crack group never toured – though none were averse to the principle. But as Tom Petty pointed out, that might spoil the moment. “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.”

He was probably right, but then we still have the original music made by the five sons of Charles Truscott Wilbury, Sr. Sir, we all owe you a big one.

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