The song Handle With Care was released as a single 30 years ago today, on 17 October 1988. It was the debut single of the Traveling Wilburys project and the lead-off track on the album Traveling Wilburys vol. 1. It was also the first recording the group did, and the song that directly caused the project to form.
The guys who made up the Wilburys do not need any introduction – George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and Bob Dylan.
The track was initially written by George Harrison for solo use. “I like the song and the way it turned out with all these people on it, so much” Harrison later said. “I just carried it around in my pocket for ages thinking ‘What can I do with this thing?’. The only thing I could think of was to do another Nine… make an album.” (A reference to his previous solo album Cloud Nine from 1987.)
The song was first intended as a bonus track on Harrison’s European single release for This Is Love. The record company had pressed for one more song and Harrison had the beginnings of Handle With Care. He discussed the request over dinner with Jeff Lynne (his co-producer on the Cloud Nine) and Roy Orbison (whose album Mystery Girl Lynne was producing at that time). Lynne was happy to help him record the track the following day, and Harrison also welcomed Orbison to attend the session after Orbison said he would love to come along and watch.
There were no professional studios available at such short notice. Harrison phoned Bob Dylan, who agreed to let them use his garage studio in Malibu.
The following day, Harrison went to retrieve one of his guitars from Tom Petty’s house. Petty had also been working with Lynne in Los Angeles, and ended up being invited as well.
Harrison had most of the music ready and some of the lyrics, but everybody had inputs and ended up contributing, as well as playing acoustic guitars on the base track. He had already planned Orbison’s segment, and decided to also include portions sung by Dylan, Lynne and Petty. Harrison recalled that he had the opening line, “Been beat-up and battered around”, but otherwise, felt the lyrics were the result of a group effort.
Been beat up and battered around
Been sent up, and I’ve been shot down
You’re the best thing that I’ve ever found
Handle me with care
Reputation’s changeable
Situation’s tolerable
But baby, you’re adorable
Handle me with care
Harrison remembered asking Dylan, who had been tending a barbecue for the musicians, to “Give us some lyrics, you famous lyricist.” When Dylan asked for a title for the song, Harrison looked around the garage. He noticed a label on a box, and the title Handle with Care was born there and then – taken directly from that label.
Harrison’s verses reflect hardships and challenges from all of his musical career, albeit in a very Harrison way. The line “Oh, the sweet smell of success!” conveys a funny mix of optimism, resignation and cynicism regarding the concept of stardom.
I’ve been uptight and made a mess
But I’ll clean it up myself, I guess
Oh, the sweet smell of success
Handle me with care
The Orbison-sung segments evoke the “lonely” theme that was a defining element of Orbison’s work from the late 1950s onwards.
I’m so tired of being lonely
I still have some love to give
Won’t you show me that you really care?
Dylan came up with the bridges. Lines like “Put your body next to mine, and dream on” captures the straightforward sexuality evident in songs from that artist’s late 1960s country period.
Everybody’s got somebody to lean on
Put your body next to mine, and dream on
In the end, they all ended up referencing themselves and their prior works in the song.
When Harrison and Lynne presented the song to the record company, they were shocked. They insisted that the song was far too good to be ‘wasted on a b-side’. They felt this could be one of George’s biggest hits in many years.
Based on this feedback, they decided to get behind the song in a bigger way. Everybody involved were game. Thought it would be fun, and were happy to do some more songs. This was the direct reason that the Traveling Wilburys became an actual project of a slightly more long-lived nature.
The band made a video for Handle With Care in October 1988, which was the last one to feature Orbison. He sadly died of a heart attack on 6 December the same year, making the Wilburys a short-lived project.
The remaining four did release a second album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 (1990), which included recordings of Orbison’s voice. Many hoped that they would continue beyond that, but that was never an intention.
Handle With Care was a solid hit and would be the most successful Wilburys single. It peaked at #45 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US (making it to #2 on Billboard’s “Album Rock Tracks” chart). It made #21 in the UK, and was a top 5 hit in many other territories (including Australia and New Zealand).
Tom Petty was the one in the group to keep the song (and the Wilburys legacy) alive, often performing the song live throughout his career. Jeff Lynne has also featured the song in his more recent ELO shows.
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