Initially starting at a meal between Roy Orbison, George Harrison, and Jeff Lynne, they got together at
Bob Dylan's studio at Santa Monica, California to record an additional track as a B-side for the single
release of Harrison's "This Is Love". Tom Petty's involvement was by chance as Harrison had left his
guitar at Petty's house. The song they came up with was "Handle with Care". However, the record company
immediately realized it was too good to be released as a "single filler".

A second album entitled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 was released on October 30, 1990. However, the album
met with less success. Harrison once claimed in an MTV interview that the band had written material for
a Vol. 2, but the material was stolen before completion.[citation needed]. Another reason offered for
the lack of a Vol. 2 is that Tom Petty's 1989 release, Full Moon Fever, featured George Harrison, Roy
Orbison, and Jeff Lynne, making it a de facto Wilbury album. The "official" story (that is, from the
perspective of the fictional Wilbury family) is that Vol. 3 was written and performed by a different
set of Wilburys (hence the new Wilbury names), and that they skipped Vol. 2 so that title could be used
if the original band ever reunites[citation needed]. This was a final nod to Orbison, effectively saying
that the original band could never reunite. In the booklet contained in the 2007 box set, the album
name is credited to 'George being George'.

The release surprised many when it debuted straight at number one in the UK Album Charts. The
collection entered the charts at #9 on the US Billboard 200 (Billboard Magazine, for the week ending
June 30, 2007). The group also hit number one on the Australian album charts, Amazon's pre-order and
sales list, and iTunes. The Traveling Wilburys Collection also debuted at #1 in the United World Chart.
The album sold 500,000 copies worldwide during the first 3 weeks and remained in the UK top 5 for seven
weeks after its release.