Traveling Wilburys - Rattled [Album Version]Details

"Rattled is a rockabilly song with Jeff most in evidence..."
John Van Der Kiste (Early 1989 - Face The Music fanzine #5)

"Yeah, well, we all wrote [Rattled], but I hadn't got a song yet. This was about the fourth or fifth one we did and I thought, 'Oh, I gotta sing one otherwise I'll go home and get something to eat.' [Laughs] Anyway, I'll send one up when I was singing it. Anyway, so it didn't matter. The singing start is sort of the rock 'n' roll voice that I do sometimes on my other records. But, uh..."
Jeff Lynne (February 10, 1990 - Classic Albums radio interview by Roger Scott)

"Like some records, you know, the combination of the sound. It was just so close to the good old rock 'n' roll thing from the late fifties. But partially, I think the guitars, acoustics and the refrigerator. The fridge, I tell you, it's a great new sound, folks. It's happening."
George Harrison (February 10, 1990 - Classic Albums radio interview by Roger Scott)

"I hadn't got a song yet. This was about the fourth or fifth one we did and I thought, 'Oh, I gotta sing one otherwise I'll go home and get something to eat.' [Laughs] Anyway, I'll send one up when I was singing it. Anyway, so it didn't matter. The singing start is sort of the rock 'n' roll voice that I do sometimes on my other records."
Jeff Lynne (circa 1990 - The Traveling Wilburys Revisited BBC Radio 2 programme (broadcast May 26, 2007))

"The fridge, I tell you, it's a great new sound, folks. Like some records, to me that track, you know, the combination of the sound. It was just so close to the good old rock 'n' roll thing from like the late fifties. But partially, I think the guitars, acoustics and the refrigerator. "
George Harrison (circa 1990 - The Traveling Wilburys Revisited BBC Radio 2 programme (broadcast May 26, 2007))

"'And... the drums, on Rattled, [Dave Stewart is] playing on the refrigerator [in his home]-- with these funny little sticks. It had to be a bit rough, but that was the fun part about it.' (George 1990)"
Patrik Guttenbacher, Marc Haines, & Alexander von Petersdorff (1996 - Unexpected Messages)

"The unspectacular rockabilly-flavored Rattled was a Jeff Lynne-penned track; its most distinctive moment is the Oh, Pretty Woman 'growwwwwllllll' that Orbison employs at a couple of points during the song."
Chip Madinger and Mark Easter (October 2000 - Eight Arms To Hold You - The Solo Beatles Compendium)

"Much of the work [on the Volume One album] was done in the kitchen, with [Jim] Keltner rapping dowel sticks on the fridge to get the rickety-tick sound on the song Rattled."
Howard Sounes (April 2001 - Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan)

"[Rattled is] a number from The Traveling Wilburys Volume 1 on which Jeff Lynne takes the lead."
Bill Harry (2003 - The George Harrison Encyclopedia)

"There was nothing innovative or significant about music that ranged from knockabout skiffle love songs to a classic American pop theme (the cars of Dirty World), through rockabilly (Rattled), to pure Orbison microdrama (Not Alone Any More)."
Simon Leng (April 1, 2006 - While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison)

"I opened the fridge and I saw all this stuff in there. And I thought, 'Oh, good. I'm going to eat well this afternoon.' And I happen to have my dowel stick at the time and I started running them across the grate... you know, the spacers that hold the eggs and things. And they're made of metal, you know. And any time I see something like that, being a drummer, I guess I always have to run my fingernail across or something. But I happen to have the sticks with me at the time. And so it make a great little sound and somebody made a comment in the background. And so I started playing like a little groove on it. And I noticed that if I move the eggs back a little bit, I move the enchiladas over to the side a bit, it tuned those little things. And we got kind of silly with it and then I started playing a more serious and everything. And somebody said, 'Well, let's overdub it.' And so that's how that happened. It became part of the track. It was the song Rattled that we used that on."
Jim Keltner (May 26, 2007 - The Traveling Wilburys Revisited BBC Radio 2 programme)

"The soothing rock 'n' roll of Rattled takes the listener off on a different tangent and the song benefits from a fantastic shuffle styled drum-beat."
Brendan Keane (June 28, 2007 - Wexford Echo)

"Each member in turn gets a shot on lead vocals [including] Jeff Lynne on the foot-tapping Rattled..."
Mick Lynch (2007 - Remember The Eighties website)

Jim Keltner, Jeff Lynne and George Harrison:

"Jim Keltner: I opened the fridge-- which I'm usually told not to do at other people's homes; I have a tendency to do that-- and I saw all this stuff in there, and I thought, 'Oh, good, we're going to eat well this afternoon!' And I happen to have my drum sticks so I started running them across the grate, the spacers that hold the eggs and things. Any time I see something like that, being a drummer, I always have to run my fingernail across it or something. It created a great sound so I started playing a groove on it and I noticed that if I move the eggs back a little, moved the enchiladas over to the side a bit, it tuned those little things! Somebody said, 'Well, let's overdub it!' So became a part of Rattled.

Jeff: Rattled started out as a pretty straightforward Rockabilly tune. Jim had the idea to go into the kitchen-- which was a long way for a microphone lead; it was probably about 80 yards away-- and record Dave's fridge. He played all the shelves and the bottles and made a great sound.

George: That track... the sound, I think, is just so close to a good old rock 'n' roll thing from the late Fifties... The guitars, acoustics and the refrigerator. The fridge: I tell you, it's the great new sound, folks, that's happening."


Jim Keltner, Jeff Lynne and George Harrison (2009 - The Traveling Wilburys book)

"[Rattle] came [to the Traveling Wilburys] like usual, you know, we're all sittin' 'round, we're all strummin' our guitars. And I remember when it came to do the vocal, we did that at George's house 'cause for some reason that vocal wasn't completely finished in L.A. where we recorded everything else at Dave Stewart's house, the first album. And I remember George putting this really cool little guitar licks, like rockabilly guitar with a slap echo on it, you know that old-fashioned guitar, that, which is really inspiring for me to go sing it. And it's just basically a very... uh... what would you call it... a rock 'n' roll, rockabilly kind of thing with Roy Orbison's growl in it, which has gotta be good. And he just did the growl just especially for the Wiburys, his growl, his own personal growl. [I got to sing Rattled when] we took straws and I had the longest one. It seemed like [I was lucky to get it] at that time. I hadn't got that many to sing. I only got like one and a half to sing anyway, really, the lead parts. So everybody said Jeff should sing it and so there was no sort of, 'I'll get it! I wanted to sing that.' There wasn't any of that."
Jeff Lynne (October 29, 2012 - Deep Tracks SiriusXM radio show)

"Jeff was the main writer of the rockabilly tune Rattled, and of the magnificently soaring ballad Not Alone Any More a perfect showcase for Roy s unmistakable vocal."
John Van der Kiste (August 2015 - Jeff Lynne: Electric Light Orchestra - Before and After)

"...the rockabilly ease of Jeff Lynne (Rattled)..."
Jim Beviglia (October 18, 2015 - American Songwriter)

"In fact, Keltner found himself succumbing to the revelry while the Wilburys were coming up with the music for the Lynne-led rockabilly cut Rattled, as dutifully showcased in the 24-minute documentary The True History of The Traveling Wilburys, when he began playing out a rhythm on the house refrigerator. 'I was in the fridge at a time when Jeff and George were hanging out in the kitchen,' he explains. 'I went in to get something to drink, and I was doing an overdub at the time and had my split sticks on me, which are like these wooden brushes. So I had them in my hand while I was looking for something to drink and probably screwing around with them-- I like tapping on stuff when I have sticks in my hand. And I think I was scraping the wooden brushes against the fridge, and somebody made a comment about how I should play that on the track. So I got real serious about it, and started moving eggs around and tamales and whatever they had in there to tune it a little bit and Jeff loved it and said, Put a mic on it. Jeff knows how to get a feel out of anything.'"
Ron Hart (October 18, 2018 - Billboard)

"Lynne provides a rare vocal lead on Rattled, though Orbison s enticing growls steal the show in a song whose beat is smacked out by Jim Keltner with split sticks on Stewart s refrigerator. It fits the album s anything-goes spirit..."
Thomas Kintner (July, 2020 - Best Classic Bands website)

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Leslie Wilson Jr. (June 26, 2021 - Gulf News)


  • Running Time: 2:59
  • Record Date: May 7 to 16, 1988 (original recordings) and Summer 1988 (final mixing)
  • Record Location: Dave Stewart Studios, Los Angeles, USA (original recordings) & Friar Park Studios, Henley-On-Thames, Oxfordshire, UK (George Harrison's home studio) (final mixing)
  • Written By: Traveling Wilburys (SBK/April Music indicates that Jeff Lynne is the primary songwriter)
  • Produced By: Jeff Lynne & George Harrison
  • Engineered By: Richard Dodd, Phil MacDonald, Don Smith and Bill Bottrell
  • Performed By: Jeff "Otis" Lynne (lead vocals, guitars, bass, backing vocals),Bob "Lucky" Dylan (acoustic guitar, backing vocals), George "Nelson" Harrison (guitars, backing vocals), Tom "Charlie T." Petty (acoustic guitar, backing vocals), Roy "Lefty" Orbison (acoustic guitar, backing vocals), Jim Keltner (drums, dowel sticks*), Ray Cooper (percussion), Dave Stewart (dowel sticks*) -- *sources contradict on who played these

  • Released On:
    • Volume One LP album (1988 October 18 — USA — Wilbury Records 25796-1)
    • Volume One CD album (1988 October 18 — USA — Wilbury Records 25796-2)
    • Volume One LP album (1988 October 24 — UK — Wilbury Records WX 224)
    • Volume One CD album (1988 October 24 — UK — Wilbury Records 925796-2)
    • The Traveling Wilburys Collection CD/DVD album (2007 June 11 — UK — Rhino/Wilbury Records 8122799824)
    • The Traveling Wilburys Collection Deluxe CD/DVD album (2007 June 11 — UK — Rhino/Wilbury Records R2 167868)
    • The Traveling Wilburys Collection Deluxe Digital album (2007 June 11 — UK — Rhino/Wilbury Records ?)
    • The Traveling Wilburys Collection CD/DVD album (2007 June 12 — USA — Rhino/Wilbury Records R2 167804)
    • The Traveling Wilburys Collection Deluxe CD/DVD album (2007 June 12 — USA — Rhino/Wilbury Records R2 167868)
    • The Traveling Wilburys Collection Deluxe Digital album (2007 June 12 — USA — Rhino/Wilbury Records ?)
    • The Traveling Wilburys Collection Second Deluxe CD/DVD album (2007 November 20 — USA — Rhino/Wilbury Records R2 167868)
    • The Traveling Wilburys Collection Second Deluxe CD/DVD album (2007 December 3 — UK — Rhino/Wilbury Records R2 167868)
    • The Traveling Wilburys Collection LP album (2007 December 4 — USA — Rhino/Wilbury Records RHI 224316)
    • Vol 1 CD album (2008 June 2 — UK — Rhino/Wilbury Records R2 ?)
    • Vol 1 CD album (2008 June 3 — USA — Rhino/Wilbury Records R2 255036)
    • The Traveling Wilburys Collection LP album (2016 June 3 — Worldwide — Concord Bicycle CRE-39517-01)
    • The Traveling Wilburys Collection CD/DVD album (2016 June 3 — Worldwide — Concord Bicycle CRE-39515)
    • The Traveling Wilburys Collection Third Deluxe CD/DVD album (2016 June 3 — Worldwide — Concord Bicycle CRE-39516-00)
    • The Traveling Wilburys Collection Deluxe Digital album (2016 June 3 — UK — Concord Bicycle ??)
    • The Traveling Wilburys Collection Digital album (2016 June 3 — UK — Concord Bicycle ?)
    • Vol. 1 Digital album (2016 June 3 — Worldwide — Concord Bicycle ???)
    • Vol. 1 LP album (2016 October 4 — Worldwide — Concord Bicycle ?)
    • Vol. 1 CD album (2016 October 14 — Worldwide — Concord Bicycle ???)
    • Volume One picture disc LP album (2018 November 2 — USA — Craft Recordings CR00040)
    • Volume One orange vinyl LP album (2020 October 9 — UK/USA — Wilbury Records CRE00213)

  • Cover Versions:
    • Strumming To The Wilbury's on their A Tribute To The Traveling Wilbury's album (04/2006)
    • Sweetback Sisters on their Loooknhg For A Fight album (05/2011)

  • Used in the Film or TV Program: Casualty episode Strangers When We Meet (2007)