Recommendations of the Editorial team
For those who weren’t around in the ’90s, this show featured major music stars playing acoustic versions of their songs. This gave new impetus to veterans like Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart. And gave newer groups like Pearl Jam and Nirvana a chance to strip their music down to the essentials and give their fans some fun surprises.
We present a chronological overview of the 15 best Unplugged-Consequences of the past few years. Before the commentators go crazy: We’re excluding appearances by groups like the Eagles and Page & Plant, who use only the name Unplugged or have used variations of it for their concert specials.
Plus, even the most die-hard Bruce Springsteen fans probably agree Plugged wasn’t exactly his best moment.
15. Rod Stewart (1993)
The shockingly high sales figures of Eric Clapton Unplugged had many other veteran artists picking up their phones to book their own MTV specials. Bob Dylan largely missed his mark (his acoustic supper club performances at the same time were infinitely better).
But Rod Stewart rose to the challenge in splendid fashion. Not only did he reunite with his former Faces and Jeff Beck Group bandmate Ron Wood for the duration of the show. But he also carefully selected many of his best cover songs. These include “Have I Told You Lately” and “Reason to Believe.”
This reminded a lot of old school Rod Stewart fans why they loved him in the first place. It became his best-selling album in years. “Reason to Believe” was heard all over the radio and gave his career a huge boost.
14. Kiss (1995)
Kiss were at the lowest point of their career when the idea of an Unplugged special came up in 1995. They were reduced to playing only acoustic sets at their own fan conventions, and after seeing Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart revitalize their careers with Unplugged, this seemed like a very good idea. +
MTV insisted on bringing back original members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley to gain media coverage for the event. A condition to which Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley agreed with no small amount of trepidation. “I had heard second-hand how much Peter’s playing had deteriorated,” Stanley wrote in his book Face The Music.
“But when they walked into the room, there was an exciting and surreal nostalgia.” They only appeared for the encores of “Beth”, “Nothin’ to Lose” and “Rock and Roll All Nite”. But once that happened, there was no going back to the old Kiss. This paved the way for the big reunion tour the next year and many more tours to come.
13. Oasis (1996)
Oasis were in the middle of their debauched (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?tour when they followed a recording of MTV Unplugged in London’s Royal Festival Hall. It was a rare opportunity to see the band outside of a stadium or major festival.
But just before the show began, Liam Gallagher canceled due to a “sore throat.” Most bands would never think of playing a gig without their lead singer. But his brother Noel just shrugged and decided to just do the singing. After all, he wrote the songs himself. And was a great singer himself.
To make the evening even more surreal, Liam decided to sit in the audience and disrupt his own band throughout the entire show. There has never been anything like this in rock history. And it was probably the first time Noel realized he could do all this on his own.