Handle with Care (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Handle with Care" | ||
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| Single by Traveling Wilburys | ||
| from the album Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 |
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| B-side(s) | "Margarita" | |
| Released | September 1988 | |
| Format | 7" | |
| Recorded | May 1988 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 3:20 | |
| Label | Wilbury, Warner Bros. | |
| Writer(s) | Traveling Wilburys | |
| Producer(s) | Traveling Wilburys | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| Traveling Wilburys singles chronology | ||
| "Handle with Care" (1988) |
"End of the Line" (1989) |
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"Handle with Care" is a song from the Traveling Wilburys 1988 album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1. Writing credits are shared by all five band members, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, and Bob Dylan.
The song was originally intended as a bonus track (or "B-side") for the B-Side of Harrison's "This is Love". Harrison had not yet written a song for the B-side when an impromptu gathering of the musicians who became the Wilburys turned into an informal songwriting and jam session. Casting about for a song idea while relaxing in a garden near Bob Dylan's recording studio, Harrison was inspired when he noticed a box in Dylan's garage that was labeled "Handle with Care". The box also inspired the opening line: "been beat up and battered around." The complete song quickly followed, with different members of the gathering contributing various lines. The group moved to a recording studio and quickly laid down the basic tracks which were later polished by eventual Wilburys producer Jeff Lynne.
The song has an easy, mid-tempo acoustic rock structure, and features Harrison on the primary vocal, and includes two consecutive bridge sections with Orbison singing the plaintive first bridge section and the rest of the group sharing vocals on the song's second refrain.
Harrison's record company quickly realized that the song was too good to be released as "filler." Encouraged by this response and the enjoyable experience of recording together, the group re-convened to record the first Wilburys album, which featured "Handle With Care" as the lead track. It reached #45 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 2001, Jamie Hoover covered the song for the compilation album Lynne Me Your Ears: A Tribute to the Music of Jeff Lynne. And in 29 November 2002 the song was part of the set for the Concert For George at Royal Albert Hall, and it was performed by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers with Jeff Lynne and Dhani Harrison. And later in 2005, Rilo Kiley vocalist Jenny Lewis recorded a version of it for her debut solo release, Rabbit Fur Coat featuring Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie), Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes) and M. Ward.
During the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 2006 tour to support Petty's solo release "Highway Companion", the band performed the song with Petty singing most of the lead vocals and band member Scott Thurston singing the Roy Orbison part.
