Handle With Care - Traveling Wilburys

"Handle with Care" is the first track 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 single reached #45 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, #2 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, #21 on the UK singles chart and #3 on the ARIA Chart

The song was originally intended as 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.

Harrison's record company decided 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.

"Handle With Care"

Been beat up and battered round
Been sent up, and Ive been shot down
Youre the best thing that Ive ever found
Handle me with care

Reputations changeable
Situations tolerable
Baby, you're adorable
Handle me with care

Im so tired of being lonely
I still have some love to give
Wont you show me that you really care

Everybodys got somebody to lean on
Put your body next to mine, and dream on

Ive been fobbed off, and Ive been fooled
Ive been robbed and ridiculed
In day care centers and night schools
Handle me with care

Been stuck in airports, terrorized
Sent to meetings, hypnotized
Overexposed, commercialized
Hand me with care

Ive 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