MTV Unplugged: Ranked

Paramount+ recently added episodes of MTV Unplugged to their streaming library. Beginning in 1990 it apparently still happens today but because MTV doesn’t really show music anymore, it’s not quite the happening that it was. In its heyday from 1992-1997 it was a big deal. A mix of classic rockers like Paul McCartney and Neil Young and bands of the moment like Nirvana and Pearl Jam showed up with acoustic instruments and did reimagined versions of their songs as well as interesting covers. In the dark ages before the internet, you couldn’t always see it again after it aired. Sometimes the artists would release it as an album, like Eric Clapton famously did winning a Grammy and becoming the best selling live album of all time. But many artists never released them and so they were hard to find and rewatch. But now they are streaming… well half of them.

Many artists simply played their biggest hit songs acoustically without really changing anything. This did not always make for the best set. Other artists delved into their catalogs for deep cuts or really changed up the arrangements on their hit songs. Some like Nirvana and Clapton filled their sets with covers. Artists that took the opportunity to do something different made the show great.

So I watched all 53¹ episodes available to stream and ranked them. Of course my personal bias will affect these rankings. I am a white man born in 1976 so you can guess which ones I liked the best. There is quite a bit of variety to the look and feel of them, especially the early seasons. Early on there is a host, Jules Shear but he disappears after about 12 episodes.² The early ones are much more loose, low key affairs, often spotlighting bands that weren’t quite as mainstream. Later seasons tended to gravitate towards big stars. There are some like Clapton and Nirvana that I was very familiar with. Others I had not seen at all. Some episodes are from a rebooted version called Unplugged 2.0 that started around 1999. I hadn’t seen any of those.

In general, I liked it less than I remembered. Growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the only way you were ever going to see Nirvana and Pearl Jam was on TV. So I looked forward to these kinds of things 35 years ago. Now because I can go to more live shows if I want and with the the internet, live music is more accessible. So seeing Lenny Kravitz play “Are You Gonna Go My Way” on a grainy recording from the 20th Century is less appealing to 48 year old Joey than it was to 17 year old Joey. The shows have not been remastered or touched up. They are 4:3 ratio and a lot of them looked and sounded bad on my TV. But watching it does capture a moment in time. There are artists that were big in the early 90s that you don’t think about anymore like Arrested Development and Soul Asylum and in many ways it’s the end of Boomer dominance and the beginning of GenX. You’ve got your Paul Simons seeming past their prime juxtaposed with the electricity of young bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana. The VHS camcorder quality of the recordings and the choice of artists make it feel like you dug up a time capsule when you watch.

Hindsight is 20/20 as they say, but with its benefit, you can see a lot of missed opportunities to swap out bands like Roxette and the hair metal bands³ for Wilco, Radiohead, NIN, Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, OutKast and on and on. The other real missing component is Americana music of any sort - the rootsiest set was courtesy of Hootie and the Blowfish of all people but artists that make roots music are almost non-existent. This was not a popular genre back then but you had Johnny Cash doing his American Recordings during the peak run as well as bands like Uncle Tupelo and The Jayhawks. A few times there is a little twang - Bob Dylan most notably - but overall it is absent. They also whiff on hip hop which we will talk about in the list.

I tried to use some kind of criteria to rank these so it wasn’t just my favorite artists. Here is what I was looking for.

• Originality - Did you just play acoustic versions of your hits or did you do something different?

• Technical Skill - Did playing unplugged show off a different skill set or did the stripped down versions highlight talent?

• Stand Out - After the first couple of years it settled into a little bit of a groove in terms of aesthetics, look and sound. What did you do to be different?

• Cultural Importance - A couple of these are cultural touchstones and the history of them is impossible to ignore when you are viewing them.

• Surprise - I was primed to like and not like some of them. Which ones surprised me and which ones disappointed me?

Last bit of housekeeping. In the first two seasons the show was 30 minutes and often featured two acts, so those sets are shorter and there is no way around it affecting the rankings compared to the 45+ minute sets everyone else got later in the run. I treated the two artist shows as one show. I’ll indicate shorter shows with an asterisk.

On to the list.

53. Staind - July 16, 2001

I watched it so you don’t have to.

52. Korn - December 9, 2006*

At 21 minutes, this episode is the most Korn I’ve ever listened to by about 20 minutes. Stripped down, I didn’t hate the music, the vocals however… I’m sure he’s a good guy but man the stripped down nature highlights the bad lyrics and vocals of Johnathon Davis. They do a terrible cover of Radiohead’s “Creep.” Amy Lee of Evanescence joined for “Freak on a Leash.” I did not enjoy this collaboration. The Cure inexplicably came out and did a mash-up of the Korn song “Make Me Bad” and The Cure’s “In Between Days.” I liked it when Robert Smith was singing. They aren’t last because they had some interesting instruments accompanying them including a guy playing what looked like a frozen Stanley Cup Trophy.

51. Shawn Mendes - August 19, 2017

I knew as soon as it started and the crowd was all screaming girls that it probably wasn’t going to be my jam. He played “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon like it was a classic rock song and it made me feel 100 years old. The whole affair reminded me a little bit of a mega church praise and worship band. Deduction for the amount of electric guitars played by he and his band - it’s called “unplugged” Shawn. It also felt like a totally different experience that had little to do with peak Unplugged.

50. Queensrÿche - July 22, 1992*

Legend has it that Bon Jovi’s acoustic performance of “Wanted Dead or Alive” at the 1989 Video Music Awards was the spark that started Unplugged. This performance by Queensrÿche was probably the kind of thing they had in mind but it’s usually the kind that ends up the worst, hard rock bands and acoustic guitars. Their big hit “Silent Lucidity” is already acoustic and the rest were sleepy prog rock numbers. No covers.⁴ The songs all sort of sounded the same. It was a pretty low energy set that kind of looked like if you asked AI to make an episode of Unplugged.

49. - A Hip Hop 50th Celebration of Jersey’s Finest - December 14, 2023

This show was what the title said, hip hop artists from New Jersey - Queen Latifah, Redman, and Wyclef among others. I almost didn’t include this one. First, it’s not “unplugged” at all. Secondly, it’s by far the most recent. It just feels like a totally different thing than Unplugged, even the 2.0 version. It was fine as a concert. I liked Redman’s set the most.

48. Shakira - February 29, 1999

I didn’t hate this one but it was all in Spanish. It was lively. There was dancing and a lot of different instruments. One guy had a flanger on his acoustic guitar and there was a lot of B3 organ that was cool.

47. Dashboard Confessional - April 24, 2002

The crowd really liked it. They sang along loudly throughout. I, however, did not like it. Chris Cabbarra played the first couple by himself. It got a little better when the whole band joined, but this band and the bands they influenced make music I do not enjoy. It’s mostly in the vocal delivery but it’s also the melodies and just the emo of it all. The only emo I like is the Counting Crows.

46. Babyface & Friends - November 21, 1997

This one stunk. First he played the terrible song “Change the World” with Eric Clapton on electric guitar. Then he did “Exhale” which he wrote for Whitney Houston but Whitney did not sing it. Then he brought out Stevie Wonder and, for reasons I can’t imagine, did no Stevie Wonder songs. K-Ci and JoJo were there as well. It was a pretty adult contemporary show that sounded like waiting in line for your prescription at the drug store. This will be a common problem in the rankings as we’ll see. He also got 60 minutes. More than anyone else I watched.

45. The Cranberries - April 18, 1995

The Cranberries are a band from my generation that I don’t like very much. Outside of “Zombie” all their songs sound the same. Making “Zombie” unplugged means all their songs did sound the same. The only thing that is interesting and unique about them is Dolores O'Riordan’s voice, which I do not enjoy. The rest of the band might as well not have been there - they did nothing but strum guitars. The set had no dynamics. It all sounded like one long, boring song.

44. Seal - June 4, 1996

This one was very boring. Very adult contemporary.

43. Soul Asylum - June 2, 1993

This was exactly what you would expect a Soul Asylum Unplugged episode to be like, except out of nowhere Lulu came out and did “To Sir With Love.”

42. Tony Bennett - June 1, 1994

Tony is an old school entertainer. He was good with the crowd. He joked about how they already play unplugged while talking about his band, a piano player, stand up bassist and drummer. Elvis Costello and kd lang came out to do a song each. Bennett was 68 years old when this was recorded - 15 years older than the next oldest performer, Bob Dylan. He sounded great but it was a little like being on a cruise ship.

41. Neil Young - December 16, 1992*

Oh boy. Where to start? I love Neil Young and fully expected this one to be in my top 10 but not sure what is going on here. It looks like three different concerts spliced together. The aesthetics are terrible. It sounds like he is in a cave. They film him from behind and above a bunch. The internet tells me that this one that is now on Paramount+ never aired because Neil was unhappy with it and that he did it again a year later. But that one is not available to watch - although it was released as an album. Not sure why they didn’t go with the second one. It’s very good. Back to the one I watched. It’s not that Neil does a bad job, it just looks and sounds terrible. Obviously Neil Young can do “unplugged” but it’s not a great setlist - “Crime in the City” takes up almost half the set and surely he could have made a better choice than “This Note’s For You” out of his deep catalog . He’s got this wireless mic and he prowls around this huge stage by himself other than when he’s joined by Frank Sampedro on mandolin and Ben Keith on acoustic slide for “Too Far Gone” which they fumble through. It’s all just very strange and not that good.

10 Artists I Wish Would Have Done Unplugged

1. Prince

2. Soundgarden

3. The Replacements

4. Beastie Boys

5. Radiohead

6. Tom Petty

7. OutKast

8. Metallica

9. Guns’n’Roses

10. Van Halen

40. Arrested Development - March 31, 1993

The first 2 years of Unplugged was pretty white. Then in the 3rd season, they had a Yo! MTV Raps episode and in the 4th season this episode with Arrested Development and another called R&B Unplugged headlined by Boyz II Men. Only Arrested Development is currently streaming. The MTV Raps episode featured LL Cool J, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. So it’s a bit of a swing and a miss by MTV to give Arrested Development a whole show while these much more well-known acts got packaged together. Arrested Development was maybe not a one hit wonder but they were a flash in the pan. With the benefit of hindsight, it would have been much better to give this show to either A Tribe Called Quest or De La Soul who 30 years later are seen as hip hop pioneers in a way that Arrested Development is not. Arrested Development was a politically and socially conscious band that I’m sure was viewed by MTV as a safe alternative to the Gangster Rap that was popular at the time.

So Arrested Development get their own 45 minute episode. They essentially played their debut album in its entirety minus their big hit “Tennessee.” It’s a visually interesting performance with the stage filled with dancers, singers, percussionists and a large band. Musically, it’s not that great. Couple that with the fact that it’s like if they’d had Candlebox on instead of Nirvana, and it just doesn’t make for a great episode.

39. Sting - April 10, 1991

I like The Police but don’t love Sting’s solo work. The first three songs were from his solo career and sounded a little bit like being in a Mervyn’s department store in 1991. Credit to Sting for reworking the Police songs “Message in a Bottle,” “Every Breath You Take,” “Tea in the Sahara” and “Walking on the Moon” but he turned them all into pretty boring adult contemporary songs. “Every Breath” especially, lacked the menace of the original. When you rework your songs and they hit, it’s great. When they don’t, you get this performance which was just a little too “music at the dentist office” for me.

38. Tori Amos - June 25, 1996

Tori Amos is one of the more talented musicians and composers to do the show. Along with the grand piano, she plays a harpsichord(?) and is joined by Steve Carlton for a few songs where he plays acoustic guitar and electric guitar. His use of the electric guitar is Johnny Greenwood style, atmospheric stuff. This one mostly wasn’t for me. She is very talented but has an overwrought vocal delivery that I got tired of fairly quickly. She played her couple of hits I was familiar with and covered “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

37. Paul Simon - June 3, 1992

Outside of whatever was going on with Neil Young’s show, this was probably the most boring of the Boomer shows. Simon played mostly hits and mostly songs that already were “unplugged.” He had a huge band and of course they were great. The only song he changed up much was “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” one of the most covered songs ever so the change-up wasn’t that exciting. Most of the set sounded like the end of SNL where the band plays and the host hugs the cast members. He did “Homeward Bound” by himself at the end with just an acoustic guitar. I wish he’d done more of that.

36. Uptown Unplugged - June 1, 1993

This was artists on the label Uptown Records - Jodeci, Mary J. Blige, Father MC, Christopher Williams and Heavy D. It’s another misfire on a hip-hop show, like with Arrested Development. I have no memory of Father MC and Christopher Williams and Heavy D, while famous, isn’t regarded as an all-timer like some of his contemporaries. Jodeci covered Stevie Wonder and surprisingly a snippet of “Give It Away” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Mary J. Blige did a Rufus tune. Father MC and Christopher Williams were unmemorable and Heavy D was on stage for five minutes before he laid down a verse. In hindsight, Def Jam or Death Row Records would have held up better than Uptown.

35. Kiss - October 30, 1995

First of all, they should have worn the make-up but it was the first time I saw leather pants on Unplugged. I don’t love Kiss but it was fine. They did a decent set of hits and deep cuts. It was cool that Ace and Peter came back for the first time in 15 years. Peter Criss looks like he plays bass for The Cars not drums for Kiss.

34. The Wallflowers - July 1, 1997*

I love the album Bringing Down the Horse. All the songs they played came from that album. They pretty easily fit into an unplugged format. But this one was kind of boring. There were some sound problems - static and feedback. The organ was cool but everything else was pretty lackluster. The show reminded me of something that happened a few months later at the MTV Video Music Awards when Bruce Springsteen played “One Headlight” with The Wallflowers. His charisma blew them off the stage. You could see Bruce trying to restrain himself to match their low energy but he can’t hardly do it. This show lacked much energy.

33. Chris Isaak - November 23, 1995*

Like 99% of the population I know exactly one Chris Isaak song. I probably ranked this episode as high as I did because it 1) had some roots music and 2) was only 23 minutes long. This one had the feel of getting together with the boys to pick a little guitar. Isaak’s band looks blue collar dudes who are in a band that covers Foghat and Skynyrd on the weekends. He did play “Wicked Game.” Nothing too exciting here but it was fine.

32. kd lang - April 28, 1993

The only kd lang song I’ve ever heard is “Constant Craving” which she played. The set vacillated between Americana, which I liked and is a missing genre on Unplugged, and cabaret jazz crooning, which I didn’t like as much. Lang’s episode is a reminder that this show took place in the early 90s and is one of the episodes that dates it. Crooners like her and Chris Isaak were popular for a brief time and sold a lot of records. Her boxy black suit makes her look like she was the 7th overall pick for the Vancouver Grizzlies in the 1995 NBA draft out of Lithuania.

31. Crowded House - May 13, 1990*

This one sounded terrible from an audio quality standpoint. They didn’t play either one of their familiar hits “Don’t Dream It’s Over” and “Something So Strong.” Our guy Jules came out and did one with them at the end. Crowded House has nice songs and nice vocal melodies but the “unplugged” aspect didn’t add much and I could have used a cover song.

30. Alanis Morissette - September 18, 1999

Alanis was fine. Played her hits and a couple of deep cuts. “You Oughta Know” was the biggest change in arrangement from her hit songs. The rest were pretty straight renditions. Bonus points because she played the flute. Deduction in points for changing the Police’s “King of Pain” to “Queen of Pain.”

29. Lenny Kravitz - July 12, 1994

This is not in Lenny’s wheelhouse. The several ballads he did like “Sister” and “Believe” highlight that he’s not the greatest lyricist and songwriter. The ratio of ballads to uptempo numbers should have been reversed - too many ballads. The slowed down, 12 bar blues version of “Are You Gonna Go My Way” seemed to last 10 minutes. The set was better when the songs weren’t stripped down like on “Always on the Run” and “Let Love Rule” where he had a choir and horn section. Phenomenal hair band with Lenny’s dreads and the drummer and guitar player’s afros.

28. Live - April 19, 1995

Not a band that I love from my generation but it was fine. I almost liked the songs more unplugged. Started out a little mopey but the energy picked up by the end. They played the hits. Only time the word “placenta” was sung on Unplugged. Nice cover of Vic Chestnutt’s “Supernatural.” I liked this one more than I thought I would.

27. Jewel - August 10, 1997

Points to Jewel for doing some different things. She started out a little iffy with only her voice and an acoustic guitar. It got better when she did her three big hits, “Foolish Games,” “Who Will Save Your Soul,” and “You Were Meant For Me” full band - with Joshua Redman playing sax and changing the arrangements up quite a bit. She might have overdone the saxophone. It was a nice touch on “Who Will Save Your Soul” but then started to veer into adult contemporary the more it was deployed. Jewel has a unique voice that over the course of 45 minutes can wear on you a little.

26. Bryan Adams - November 28, 1997

I won’t pretend I don’t enjoy Bryan Adams’ album Reckless. The songs he did from that era were pretty good - “Cuts Like a Knife,” “Heaven,” and Summer of ‘69.” He changed up the arrangements, swapping out mandolins and some sort of flute for synths - he overdid the flute thing a touch. He went big on the strings having Michael Kamen conduct an orchestra from Juliard. But half the set was his terrible 90s songs. Thankfully we did not get an orchestral version of “Everything I Do.” Swap out the 90s songs with “Run To You” and some other 80s bangers and this would have been a better one.

25. Duran Duran - November 13, 1993

Duran Duran are a good microcosm of the show. They played hits like “Hungry Like the Wolf” and “Girls on Film” with different arrangements and they were good. They played hits like “Rio” and “Ordinary World” fairly straight and they were boring. This set had a good energy to it - no stools. They had a female backup singer that took some lead vocals and brought some life to it.

24. The Smithereens & Graham Parker - January 28, 1990*

The first show from the first season in 1990 available to watch. I kind of like the format. Smithereens played a few songs, Graham Parker played one. Then they did a Smithereens song together and finished with a Sam Cooke medley of “Cupid” and “Chain Gang” with my man Jules joining in. I liked the collaborative element.

23. Darryl Hall and John Oates - June 5, 1990*

Hall and Oates are probably the reason MTV Unplugged was created. You are at the end of the 80s, a synth heavy decade, so you take those artists and have them strip down their songs. From that standpoint, Hall & Oates had a good set. They started with “Out of Touch” a very synthy song and stripped it down. It worked as did “She’s Gone.” The middle of the set however, featured songs from their upcoming album, which was not exactly peak Hall & Oates so I didn’t love the setlist. They finished strong with a nice version of “Don’t Let Me Down” by The Beatles. Oates looked fantastic with his curly mane and very 80s mustache.

22. The Church & Sinead O’Connor - March 18, 1990*

Another one of those 25 minute shows with 2 artists. The Church played their two biggest hits “Under The Milky Way” and “Metropolis” and they were fine. This was right before Sinead O’Connor blew up with her version of “Nothing Compares 2 U.” She played “Black Boys on Mopeds” and the a cappella song “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.” Nice showcase of her artistry prior to the controversy she got embroiled in after tearing up a picture of the Pope on SNL.⁵ The show ended with host Jules Shear and Marty-Wilson Piper of The Church doing a nice version of The Beatles “Rain.”

Top 10 Unavailable Shows I Wish Were Available

10. Queens of the Stone Age - June 10, 2005

9. Vampire Weekend - January 9, 2010

8. Gang of Youths - July 25, 2018

7. The Good Neil Young Show - February 7, 1993

6. The Cure - January 24, 1991

5. 10,000 Maniacs (2nd One) - April 21, 1993

4. The Black Crowes & Tesla - November 19, 1990

3. Stevie Ray Vaughan & Joe Satriani - January 30, 1990

2. Bruce Springsteen - September 22, 1992⁶

1. Jimmy Page & Robert Plant - August 25-26, 1994

21. Mariah Carey - May 20, 1992*

Maybe it was just because this one came after Sting, Elvis Costello, Eric Clapton and Paul Simon but I enjoyed it. In stripping down the music, Mariah Carey made the songs more soulful and less attached to 90s pop than they sound when you hear them 33 years later. The new arrangements gave them a more 60s soul vibe. It was mostly hits and a cover of the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There.” Carey has a great voice and the more subtle production highlighted it well.

20. Stone Temple Pilots - February 2, 1994

I probably liked this in 1994 a lot more than I did 30 years later. It’s kind of low energy. Lead singer Scott Weiland is the only band member that does much. The only interesting thing they do is turn “Sex Type Thing” into a kind of Bossa nova and it’s interesting but not great. “Creep” was already acoustic so it sounded the same. STP was coming off of their first album, Core, which does not feature many acoustic guitars. They played no covers. It was just OK. STP would have had a better set after their 3rd album with more choices - a common problem with the newer bands that only had one album.

19. Sheryl Crow - April 20, 1995

Sheryl Crow’s episode highlights the good and bad of Unplugged. The show often has a real coffee shop vibe. Crow played that up even more by having her and her band on couches. This made about half the set pretty mellow. When they got off their couches, it was better. Like many of the artists, Crow only had one album under her belt so not a lot to choose from. She did two covers, one good, “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday” by Fats Domino and one bad, “D’yer Mak’er” by Zeppelin.⁷ She did a change-up of “Strong Enough” that was good and a change-up of “All I Wanna Do” that was a terrible, coffee shop spoken word version. Unlike many of her one album contemporaries, she attempted to do something different than just play straight acoustic versions of her hits. Half the set worked, the other half didn’t but at least it was a swing to try something different. Bonus points for her and the band members switching instruments.

18. Annie Lennox - September 21, 1992*

Recorded in Switzerland, it looks different from most of them. Annie Lennox is the perfect candidate for Unplugged. Her work with the Eurythmics is decidedly not unplugged so there is the opportunity to do something different and she does. A stripped back take on “Here Comes the Rain Again” is a highlight, switching out the synth riff for an accordion. She covers Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” and punctuates the rest of the set with Eurythmic’s deep cuts and solo hits like “Why” and “Walking on Broken Glass.” The acoustic set highlights her powerful voice well.

17. Elton John - August 5, 1990

It was just Elton and his piano. Decked out in a black and pink wind suit and pink baseball cap, he looked like your junior high art teacher going for a mall walk. He’s a tremendous performer and his voice and playing were great. I didn’t love the setlist, “Sad Songs (Say So Much),” “Sacrifice,” “Daniel,” “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” and “Candle in the Wind,” but it was performed well. “Benny & The Jets” was the highlight. Would have enjoyed it more if the setlist were better.

16. The Allman Brothers - December 9, 1990*

This is the Warren Haynes iteration of the band. Good harmonies. Great guitar playing. Percussion but no drum kit. Kind of sleepy versions of “Midnight Rider” and “Melissa” followed by a new at the time song “Seven Turns” and a cover of Robert Johnson’s “Come on in My Kitchen.” It was fine. There is a real lack of good guitar playing on the episodes available to watch, so it’s possible I’m overrating this one because of Haynes and Dickey Betts’ picking.

15. Hootie and The Blowfish - April 22, 1996

This is by far the one I was the most surprised by in a good way. Hootie and The Blowfish were very popular my senior year in high school. I don’t dislike them but haven’t really thought about them in 30 years. They were a victim of being so popular that there was an inevitable backlash and they became a joke. The band’s name doesn’t help. But they really did something on this set. I ranked this episode as high as I did for two reasons: 1) it was much better than it had any right to be and 2) it was the rootsiest episode from start to finish which is something that they don’t do enough of on the show - I realize I’ve said this several times.

Hootie brought out Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket to sing a couple of songs - deduction in points for not doing any Toad the Wet Sprockets’ songs. They also had Nancy Griffith⁸ sing several with them, including a cover of Vic Chestnutt’s “Gravity of the Situation” and Tom Wait’s “I Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love With You.” They didn’t play their monster hit, “I Only Wanna Be With You” and mostly focused on songs from their second album, none of which I knew, which probably helped. They had fiddles and mandolins and did pretty cool versions of two of their biggest hits “Hold My Hand” and “Let Her Cry.”

Not everything was great. There were some dreaded strings that become a cliché the more episodes you watch. Darius Rucker sat in a really short chair while everyone else sat on tall stools. It was outside and had a little bit of frat party vibe at times, which is probably where Hootie was the most popular.

I came away realizing because of the choices of covers and name checking of R.E.M. that Hootie is probably a band with great taste in music but just OK in their own right. There is an alternate universe where Cracked Rear View⁹ doesn’t sell a bajillion records and Hootie exists more in the space of Toad the Wet Sprocket, Gin Blossoms and Big Head Todd and The Monsters - not the greatest bands in the world but remembered more fondly than Hootie because they weren’t as ubiquitous.

14. Elvis Costello - July 3, 1991*

Of all the short sets, this is the one I wanted more of. Costello stuck to his 80s catalog doing an uptempo set which goes against most artists’ tendency to be mellow when they are on Unplugged. The finale of “Other Side of Summer” followed by a cover of Little Richard’s “Bama Lama Lama Loo” was the highlight. I won’t dock Costello for using electric guitars and an organ on a few songs because at one point his bass player played drums on a trash can.

13. John Mellencamp - August 12, 1992

Pretty much the platonic ideal for the show. For the most part, Mellencamp played songs that were already “unplugged,” “Paper and Fire,” “Check it Out,” and “Scarecrow.” But he did a deep cut “Big Daddy of Them All” and a cover “All Along the Watchtower,”¹⁰ where his fiddle player and accordion player played the Hendrix solos. He smoked cigarettes while he sang and wore his sunglasses most of the time. He played “Pink Houses” and “Small Town.” His band was good and there was a good energy to it. He scrawled “F*ck Fascism” into his guitar. It was fine but not revelatory.

12. Aerosmith - September 30, 1990*

I had some trepidation going into this one. I love 70s Aerosmith but I’m not really a fan of the 80s and beyond. But it turned out pretty good. They start out with a deep cut, “Hangman Jury” that fit the format pretty well. Then they do a pretty straight rendition of “Dream On.” They finish with “Train Kept A Rollin,” “Walkin’ the Dog” and “Toys in the Attic.” Steven Tyler sounds good and it’s a nice combination of hits, covers and deep cuts. It also serves as proof of how much better Aerosmith is when they don’t have the awful production and hired gun songwriters they used from Permanent Vacation onwards.

11. Melissa Etheridge - March 21, 1995

I’m not a huge Melissa Etheridge fan but I remember this one for reason we’ll get to in a second. Outside of Sinead O’Connor who only did 2 songs, I don’t remember anyone else playing by themselves the whole time like Etheridge did. It was a nice change of pace. She has a huge voice and it really stood out. She’s not the most interesting guitar player so it got a little same-y after a bit. Finally, on the last song she did something besides just strum. The solo aspect allowed for more audience participation like clapping and singing along and made it more intimate. She did her big hits “Come To My Window” and “I’m the Only One.” She covered Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May.” And then…

Bruce Springsteen came out to do “Thunder Road.” That’s why I remembered it. They were good together. Nice harmonies. Probably ranking this too high based on the appearance of Bruce, but “Thunder Road” is pretty awesome.

10. Alicia Keys - July 14, 2005

I’m kind of an agnostic when it comes to Alice Keys, but I enjoyed this one. Keys went with a big band rather than smaller, which was a welcome change. Artists strip down their songs typically. But Keys had horns, strings and enough backup singers to almost have a choir. Part of my enjoyment might have been just a breakup of the monotony of white dude bands playing acoustic guitar. Hers was the first one I watched that wasn’t that.¹¹ I’m not going to ding her for the Fender Rhodes not being technically unplugged because I liked it. “Fallin” was the highlight.

Cover Songs

I liked it when the bands did cover songs. It gives you a window into the stuff they probably played in their bedrooms by themselves when they were learning guitar and forming themselves as artists. Here are some of my favorites:¹²

“Gravity of the Situation” - Hootie and the Blowfish (Vic Chestnutt)

“Tom Traubert’s Blues” - Rod Stewart (Tom Waits)

“Before You Accuse Me” - Eric Clapton (Bo Diddley)

“River Deep, Mountain High” - Annie Lennox (Ike & Tina Turner)

“I’ll Be There” - Mariah Carey (Jackson 5)

“Supernatural” - Live (Vic Chestnut)

“The Man Who Sold The World” - Nirvana (David Bowie)

“Don’t Let Me Down” - Hall & Oates (Beatles)

“Blue Moon of Kentucky” - Paul McCartney (Bill Monroe)

“Where Did You Sleep Last Night” - Nirvana (Lead Belly)

9. Rod Stewart - May 5, 1993

One of the better Boomer episodes. Unlike Elton John, Stewart had a great setlist that focused on his 70s songs which are much better than the rest of his catalog. Unlike Hall & Oates he didn’t play anything from his current record. He had great energy and was unable to remain on the obligatory stool that everyone uses on Unplugged. Ron Wood joined him for about half the set, playing songs they wrote together with The Faces and Stewart’s early solo career. The best Unplugged shows get the intimate part right and play to the room. Stewart did this. He was engaging and funny with the audience. It wasn’t the mellow affair that most of the other artists of his generation went with. He got the formula right with deep cuts, hits and a cover of Tom Waits. I’ll only dock Stewart for joking about how old he was so many times since he was the same age I am now.

Things I Got Tired of Seeing After Several Episodes

6. Joking that you already play unplugged

5. Everyone dressed in all black

4. Drummers playing things besides drums

3. Non-standup acoustic bass guitars¹³

2. Strings

1. Stools

8. Pearl Jam - May 13, 1992

Full disclosure, this is one of my favorite bands of all-time. That being said, I have mixed feelings on the episode. Their debut album Ten was a massive success and Pearl Jam was the biggest band in the world in 1992.¹⁴ There is not an acoustic guitar to be heard on Ten, and they did no covers so the set is reimagined versions of riff heavy rock songs. For a long time you could not easily find this. It wasn’t released on record until 2019.

The good: It was better than I remembered. Watching it is better than listening to it. Eddie Vedder is in great voice and is a charismatic, live-wire throughout. Dave Abbruzzese is Pearl Jam’s best drummer. The closer “Porch” is incendiary. It does capture early Pearl Jam’s intensity.

The not so good: It is not in Mike McCready’s wheelhouse. He gamely plays his solos on acoustic guitar but the man is an electric guitar player. As much as they try to change up the arrangements, they are ultimately just acoustic versions of electric songs. Personal bias, but “Jeremy” is not my favorite Pearl Jam song and I would have loved literally any other song from Ten instead. Stone Gossard sits in a strange, crosslegged position the whole time and he and McCready never quite match the energy of Vedder, Abbruzzese and bassist Jeff Ament. I wish they’d done a cover.¹⁵ A few months after this, Vedder and McCready played Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” at a 30th anniversary celebration of Dylan, a song that regularly appears in Pearl Jam setlists. It would have been welcome here.

Still, it’s a good document of a band coming into their own. It would have been a better set after their second album Vs, which has acoustic guitars and songs that would have fit into the format more easily. But the show really gives you a window into Vedder’s intense charisma.

7. Alice In Chains - May 28, 1996

Outside of - you’ll find out if you keep scrolling - this was the best of the “grunge¹⁶” bands that did the show. Alice In Chains had a deeper bag of songs to choose from than Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots.

This one is somehow sadder than the Nirvana episode. Layne Staley looks like a zombie. He is very thin and gaunt. Less than a month later, he would play for the final time with Alice In Chains - they opened four shows for Kiss after this and that was it. He would be dead a little more than 5 years later, spending the rest of his life withdrawn and addicted to heroin. To think that you can still go see Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan play live but not Staley, Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell or Scott Weiland is hard to think about.

One of the things you notice when you watch the 90s bands is how uncomfortable Cobain, Vedder, and Staley were with the spotlight. Vedder is the only one who finally made peace with his fame. Staley rarely takes off his sunglasses in this episode and when he does, he keeps his eyes closed. He makes for a very haunting figure, dressed in all black.

This was the first time they’d played live in nearly two years. Staley is a little shaky at first, but as he warms up, it’s a reminder of what a unique, powerful vocalist he was and how great his harmonies with Jerry Cantrell were. The acoustic renditions highlight those harmonies well. At one point during “Down in a Hole,” Staley hits a great vocal run and Cantrell smiles in a mixture of surprise and excitement. It’s a good setlist - hits and deep cuts. A weakness of Unplugged is playing electric guitar solos on acoustic guitar, but Cantrell does a nice job. Despite the sadness that hangs over it, or maybe because of it, it’s a moving episode that’s a fitting swan song for the Layne Staley incarnation of the band. He sang about his demons one last time before they consumed him.

6. Paul McCartney - April 3, 1991

I was knocked out by this one. I had never seen it and knew nothing about it. I was kind of primed to not like it. I love the Beatles and McCartney but I fully expected it to be “Yesterday” and “Hey Jude” and rote, acoustic versions of very well-known songs. But it is not that at all. The only complaint I could have is that it looks like it was filmed for Public Access TV.

It is literally acoustic. The guitars are not run through amps, just mic’d up. The only song that McCartney plays that is obvious is “Blackbird.” He did great reimagined versions of Beatles’ songs like “Here, There and Everywhere” and “I’ve Just Seen A Face.” He’s got a killer band and does some great harmonies with bass player Hamish Stuart. He used the opportunity to do some skiffle and bluegrass, covering Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky” and Gene Vincent’s “Be-Bop-A-Lua.” He is funny and engaging with the crowd.

The real stunner is a reworked version of “And I Love Her.” Slowed down and turned into a bucolic, country folk song, it’s a tremendous reminder of why Paul McCartney is a musical genius. Of course he’s a great songwriter but his singing and playing are impeccable and the set is a real showcase for him as an arranger.

5. Eric Clapton - March 11, 1992

“See if you can spot this one,” Clapton says before playing a dramatically reworked version of “Layla,” forever changing what it meant to be on Unplugged. Prior to the 1992 season of MTV Unplugged, it was a little bit of a novelty show on MTV. But the huge success of Eric Clapton’s episode and subsequent album made it a more prestigious part of MTV’s line up through the mid 90s. Eric Clapton’s episode of Unplugged and the popularity of the live album it spawned was in many ways the last time a member of the first generation of classic rockers was relevant in the mainstream. It was almost a passing of the torch with Pearl Jam in the middle of this season and Nirvana bookending the next season in 1993.

Eric Clapton’s star has fallen since 1992. Back then any list of “best guitar players” would have featured him in the top 10. Not so today where he’s considered the most “mid” of the Boomer guitar gods. I like Clapton OK in Cream and Derek and The Dominoes. His solo work, on the other hand, is spotty. In 1992, he was still one of the defining guitar heroes of his generation and having him do Unplugged was a big deal. Say what you will about him, he took his episode seriously and created a template that many of the best episodes featured - deep cuts, covers and major reworkings of hit songs.

Clapton’s episode is good almost as much for what’s not in it as for what is. No acoustic versions of “Sunshine of Your Love” or “Wonderful Tonight.” He plays his current, already acoustic, hit at the time, the maudlin “Tears in Heaven”¹⁷ but other than those, everything else is unexpected. He does the radically reworked “Layla” and reworked and better versions of some of his crummy 80s songs like “Old Love,” then reaches way back to Robert Johnson and Lead Belly for his covers - another mirror of Nirvana who would do a tremendous rendition of Lead Belly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” on their episode. The episode I watched had a rendition of his terrible late period song “My Father’s Eyes” but that thankfully didn’t make the original broadcast or album as it didn’t fit the vibe.

A stately affair, everyone has on a sport coat and Clapton looks like your dad’s accountant friend. A lot of the show sounds like James Taylor’s “Steamroller Blues,” white dudes playing acoustic blues songs. The show is half Clapton paying tribute to his heroes and half originals that were influenced by those heroes. Mostly known as an electric guitar player, Clapton is fine on acoustic, mixing delicate fingerpicking, flat picking and slide guitar.

Much of the importance of Clapton’s episode is in its influence on Unplugged itself. With the success of his episode, Clapton gave future performers the freedom to experiment and do the unexpected.

4. R.E.M. - May 21, 2001

Ten years after they did their first one in 1991, (not available to watch) R.E.M. returns to past its prime Unplugged 2.0. Filmed above Times Square, it looks quite a bit different than the first run of Unplugged. Maybe I’m overrating this because I love and miss this band but I thought it was really good - I'd never seen it. A great setlist with some deep cuts and transformed hits, they were in fine form. They played some of their late period songs and then a good selection of older hits, including a drumless version of “Losing My Religion.” They avoided some of their more jangly early hits that might not have worked as well on Unplugged. A six piece band for most of the set, Mike Mills and Peter Buck switched instruments throughout, playing banjo, mandolin, guitar and piano. When just Michael Stipe, Mills and Buck did “So. Central Rain” by themselves, it might have got a little dusty in my living room. The highlight was a great version of “Country Feedback” with a little bit of “Like a Rolling Stone” mixed in. Speaking of Bob Dylan…

3. Bob Dylan - December 14, 1994

It kind of pains me to put all of these Boomer artists ahead of Pearl Jam. But one thing these artists had access to that Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots didn’t at the time is a deep catalog to choose from. Dylan especially, more even than McCartney had a lot of choices. Dylan did an interesting set, a lot of hits but also some deep cuts like “Dignity” and “Shooting Star.” He opened with “All Along the Watchtower,” which is already a hard one to understand the words to and he was a little mush mouthed through the first couple of songs. But once he got going, the energy picked up and it turned into a great set.

His was the twangiest episode, outside of inexplicably Hootie and The Blowfish. A real missing component of Unplugged is any type of roots or country music, which Dylan provides here courtesy of a steel guitar player and stand up bass. So many of the sets used strings and were mellow, moody concerts. Dylan, on the other hand, had great energy to his set, no stools, no strings. The arrangements were interesting and fun, he played with the lyrics. Dylan was having, dare I say, a good time. A rollicking version of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” was the highlight.

Dylan was at an interesting point in his career. All his contemporaries were. They were just about done having “hits” and being culturally important for what they were doing in the present but had not been lionized as legends yet for what they’d done in the past. With the first generation of rock stars there was no map for what to do in middle age. On his two albums prior to this he did only folk covers and it had been well over a decade since he put out anything critically or commerically popular. But on this night, he decided to remind people why is considered one of the all time greats by doing spectacular versions of some of his most popular songs and a couple of real off beat ones. He had his perfect mix of genius and weird working this night.

Dylan is always interesting as a cultural artifact. Anytime you watch something from the past, he is captivating. I’m sure people were disappointed by it in the moment. I can imagine some at the time calling it “safe” because he played so many hits. And Dylan heads might still be saying that. But I went into it not remembering much about it. So it was always going to be something. Which is what I wanted for the show. Be something. Be interesting. Which brings us to our next one.

2. Oasis - August 23, 1996

The show starts out with Noel Gallagher, the band’s guitarist and songwriter, announcing that his brother and lead singer, Liam, will not be joining them because he has “laryngitis.” He told the crowd they were “stuck with the ugly four” meaning he and the non-Liam members of the band. With Liam not there, Noel takes over lead vocals. Noel does sing lead on some Oasis songs but since there was an orchestra backing them, the setlist was probably tough to change. Liam dropped out last minute so Noel probably didn’t have any time to rehearse the songs that Liam normally sings. Noel gamely sings the Liam songs but the first half of the set is a little boring. It was missing the thing that Liam brings to the band. The swagger. Until…

Liam perches himself in the balcony of the theater with a beer and a cigarette and begins to heckle the band. This lights a file under Noel, who responds by saying “let’s get on with one that I wrote,” a dig at Liam because Noel writes all the songs. It also massively ups the energy of everyone on stage with Noel doing a great version of “Cast No Shadow" and singing both parts. You can never really hear what Liam is saying but it is clear he is heckling his brother and Noel responds by making a case that Liam is not a necessary part of the band - and I’m pretty sure he calls him a “b**tard c*nt” at one point. It’s wild.

Some other thoughts on by far the strangest Unplugged. There is more harmonica soloing in this set than a Bruce Willis wine cooler commercial courtesy of this man.

The broadcast mostly only shows Noel (and the harmonica player pictured above) and rarely the rest of the band. Gun to my head, I couldn’t name another member of Oasis besides the Gallagher brothers. The way Noel sits on his stool and plays simple acoustic guitar chords reminds me of every dude I knew in college with an acoustic guitar, playing, well “Wonderwall.” The orchestra behind them helped to fill out the songs which was needed. Oasis songs are pretty simple when stripped down but the production on their records really sweetens them up and so the orchestra filled the void left by the absence of electric instruments. I’m not the biggest Oasis head - I don’t know much past the first two records, so I’m glad this show went the way it did. The second half was a captivating watch of two brothers that really seem to not get along.¹⁸

1. Nirvana - December 14,1993

It was always going to be this one at number one. No matter how I tried, it is impossible to separate it from context. Filmed less than 6 months before Kurt Cobain’s tragic death by suicide on April 8, 1994, MTV played it constantly in the days and weeks afterwards. Then in November it was released as an album, MTV Unplugged in New York, and the songs “All Apologies” and the cover of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold World” were all over the radio.

But beyond the historical context, it is just good. Nirvana really understood the assignment. No acoustic versions of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or “Heart-Shaped Box.” Instead Nirvana played deep cuts like “Pennyroyal Tea” and invited the Meat Puppets to come out and covered two of their songs - something I wished more bands would have done.¹⁹ They had a cellist, Lori Goldston, play on several songs. Bassist Krist Novoselic played accordion some. They really did something different. MTV Unplugged in New York might be the most influential thing Nirvana ever did. You hear its influence in bands like Arcade Fire and White Stripes way more than you hear the influence of Nevermind anywhere.

It’s an incredibly raw sounding set, especially Cobain’s vocals. The voice cracking falsetto on “Lake of Fire” and the raspy howl on the final verse of Lead Belly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night" put on display both his fearlessness and vulnerability. Kurt also hooks up a chorus and fuzz pedal to his acoustic guitar giving it an interesting tone. It is a very unique set when you compare it to their contemporaries like Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains who simply did acoustic versions of their hits.

Unplugged in New York is an important cultural touchstone and I often wonder how it would be received if Cobain hadn’t died shortly after. But it’s just a great set. The closing of “All Apologies” into “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” is the best thing MTV Unplugged ever produced.

1. There were over 100 episodes but they are not all available to stream.

2. I have no memory of Jules Shear hosting. He has an odd way about him like he doesn’t want to be the host. At first he gave off an off-brand Pauly Shore vibe but I googled him and apparently he is a songwriter and wrote some hits for Cyndi Lauper and The Bangles. Early on he would play with the artists at the end of the show. The first couple of seasons of the show look really dated. The theme song is awful and sometimes the sound is bad. But there is a looseness to the performances that is nice. It might be the lack of pressure. Post Eric Clapton, it was more of a big deal to be on Unplugged.

3. Thankfully almost none of the hair bands are streaming.

4. Google informed me that they covered “Rockin’ in the Free World” but it was not on the broadcast.

5. Turns out she was right!

6. Bruce did not actually play “unplugged” except for the opening song.

7. There was a terrible Led Zeppelin tribute album that came out around this time where she did that song. Like everything else Zeppelin related from he 90s, it’s been wiped from the face of the earth.

8. Also no Nancy Griffith songs.

9. Not to dive too deep into Hootie, but Cracked Rear View was produced by Don Gehman who produced R.E.M.’s Life’s Rich Pageant (my favorite) and peak John Mellencamp. It has some of the jangle of those two but is not as interesting sonically. Rucker, who has a unique voice, is way out front on everything and the music behind him is kind of generic. This episode of Unplugged makes you wonder what would have happened if Hootie leaned more R.E.M. - just a little weirder. Despite their attempt on this show, I don’t think they have that in them as songwriters.

10. A few months later, Mellencamp played a great two song set at the 30th Anniversary celebration of Bob Dylan doing “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat” but not “All Along the Watchtower.” Neil Young did a killer version of that one.

11. For some reason, they were not in chronological order. What Paramount called “Season 1” had early shows from 1990 and Shawn Mendes from 2017 as well as Pearl Jam and Nirvana and this one from Keys. From there it went in chronological order.

12. I didn’t include “Thunder Road” from Melissa Etheridge’s episode because Bruce was there.

13. Thank God for Tony Bennett.

14. Ten outsold Nevermind. Nirvana was more critically popular but Pearl Jam was more commercially popular.

15. The internet tells me they did “Rockin’ in the Free World” but it is not on the broadcast. Swap that for “Jeremy” and I’d bump it up a few spots.

16. I hate this term. The bands hate this term. But you know who I’m talking about when I use it.

17. Yes, I know what it’s about, but no, I still don’t like it.

18. But you can catch them on tour this year as they are reuniting. I’m sure it’ll go great!

19. Collaborations, not invite the Meat Puppets out, although Sting and the Meat Puppets would have made his set better.