Had to check dates, but Cream is a good example, had completely forgotten about them. Also fantastic stuff there. I don't know why, but thought the Travelling Wilburys were much earlier than they ended up being (late 80s, I'd have put them in the 70s easily). Clapton was previously big with other bands, I'm struggling with the other two. Both were good/known, but were their previous efforts 'big' enough to qualify? Sure they were big in their circles, but I really only know the other two BECAUSE of Cream. maybe they were bigger in blues circles that I don't follow in that era. to be fair, I wasn't born until 15 years after Cream got together. Crosby,Stills,Nash & Young probably technically qualifies, just not sure it gets to 'super group' in my head. At least not at the time they got together. Yes, they were parts of other bands that had success (Byrds, Hollies, Buffalo Springfield), but I see their biggest contribution as being part of CSNY, not the earlier efforts. Maybe it's because their combined effort was so good? Afterwards, they were bigger names in my mind, and their solo projects went well, played together again, etc. Supergroup NOW, but were they big enough at the time? Travelling Wilburys just have that overpowering SuperGroup feel. I mean, the least famous guy in the group was probably Jeff Lynne, and he was the frontman for ELO, and he seems like he organized/ran the whole thing. Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan; that's an insane amount of musical talent in one place. Even looking at a big wiki list, not seeing another band that is at their level. A couple kinda close with newer bands, one or two that was basically just an existing band with a new singer. Plastic Ono band is actually a decent example: all the Beatles except Paul, Eric Clapton played with them, guys from Manfred Mann, the Who, and Yes. Solid, Still not really scratching Travelling Wilburys, they've got no one you have to look up, every member is RnR Hall of Fame on their own merits. It's really pretty amazing.
And with all that talent, one can start to see why they went under different names and never divulged the project until it was in the can The thing that sets the Traveling Wilburys apart is just how prolific and recognizable all the members were on their own efforts. At that point, I'm not sure there ever was anything quite as iconic all in one place. It's like asking two A-listed directors to work together on a project. And what's interesting about them is that they ended up influencing each other in their own efforts. From that point on, I think all of them took on some of Lynn's production techniques and they start to exhibit some of his sound.
It's insane, really. Read the entire Wikipedia entry on supergroups, and they were so far above any of the others that it's nuts. I mean, who's the least talented guy in the group? Tom Petty? When Tom Petty is the floor of your talent level, you're doing ok. Obviously these sorts of things aren't meant to last long, as it was friends having fun kinda between other gigs, but when something like THAT comes together... It was tough to find even a second place there. CSNY is probably next, even if they weren't as huge individually beforehand (but were all in legit frontline bands). Next ones were more just a merging of a couple bands, or one band but shitcanning the singer because he was an a-hole or died or something. Maybe something like Velvet Revolver? Foo Fighters kinda qualify, but more merger, not sure if there's enough on the fringes of that one. Travelling Wilburys had so much talent that it was overkill/waste. Imagine having enough talent that you have Roy Orbison in your band, and you just stick him in the corner and have him play rhythm guitar and do backup vocals or something. Who wants to hold the tambourine? Like I said, it's 100% rock and roll hall of fame, no duds. The fun trivia there is that while every single band member is in the HoF, the band isn't.
Which was Warner Bros.' point when Harrison submitted "Handle with Care" for a b-side to "This Is Love." Jeff Lynne was there to produce, they were using Bob Dylan's home studio to record, Roy Orbison was there, and Tom Petty invited himself (George had left his guitar at Tom Petty's house). "Why are you wasting this on a b-side?" was, basically, the label's response to the song. I look at a number of albums from that time -- Harrison's Cloud Nine, Petty's Full Moon Fever, Orbison's Mystery Girl, Lynne's Armchair Theater, and, even though he wasn't a Wilbury, Del Shannon's Rock On! -- as part of the "Wilburys soup," so to speak. Each of the albums featured another Wilbury (or two or three) in guest roles, and they all feel like they "belong" together, largely because they all have Lynne behind the mixing boards in common.
I think in the reissue as double-album from several years back states that Del Shannon almost became a Wilbury, but that the idea fell through after a 3rd album never became a reality.
The more I've been thinking about it, the more I've realized how perfect the Wilburys are. It isn't so much that they're all top musicians, but that essentially they captured all of them at their prime as friends and musicians and made a sort of time capsule, and I think that's why it's so special. This kind of pedigree is likely not going to happen again, unless we get a similar followup ala Wilburys 2.0. It'd be like getting Billy Joel, Elton John, Peter Gabriel and Bruce Springsteen in a band together. We were definitely lucky with the Wilburys