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UR008: “MTV Unplugged Two-Timers Club” (40+ artists who appeared on Unplugged more than once)
110 Plays3 months ago
Join us as we establish the “MTV Unplugged Two-Timers Club” and induct the inaugural batch of 40+ artists who have appeared on MTV Unplugged more than once (with a few even appearing three times). Inductions are broken out by four main categories: Two Shows, 1.5 Shows, Two Spots, and Non-Band Musicians.
Inductees include: R.E.M., Café Tacuba, Fanta 4/Die Fantastischen Vier, Mando Diao, Neil Young (3x), Tony Bennett, The Black Crowes, Lenny Kravitz, Adele, Melissa Etheridge, Jewel, Marcus Mumford, Miley Cyrus, 10,000 Maniacs, The Cure (including 3x for Pearl Thompson), Elvis Costello, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, k.d. lang, Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs (Oasis), Andrea Echeverri (Aterciopelados), Diego Torres, Julieta Venegas (3x), Juanes, Morten Harket, Wyclef Jean, MC Lyte, Shanice, K-Ci & JoJo, Mary J. Blige, David Byrne, Maggie Estep, Gustavo Santaolalla (3x), Patrick Warren, Mitchell Froom, Nathan East (3x), Greg Leisz, Perry Montague-Mason (3x), Steve Sidwell, Erik Friedlander (3x), and Jules Shear.
Did I miss anyone? To let me know of any others (or to connect with the pod for any other reason):
- You can email me at unpluggedrevisited@gmail.com,
- You can reach out on Bluesky at @unplugged_pod,
- You can leave a voicemail (that’ll maybe get played on the show) by dialing 234-REVISIT (234-738-4748)
Recommended![UR014: Mark Bryan (Hootie and the Blowfish) [1996 MTV Unplugged] image](https://media.zencastr.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=112,quality=85/image-files/66ea0b235fcf51d2c9a0b7cd/43cbefc3-777c-4d93-9915-92abd82876d2.jpg)
Transcript
Introduction to Unplugged Revisited Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
welcome to unpllu
00:00:10
Speaker
Unplugged. Unplugged. Unplugged. Revisited. Greetings and salutations and happy 2025. Welcome back to Unplugged Revisited, the podcast that celebrates, critiques, and dives deep into the last three and a half decades of MTV Unplugged.
Artists' Repeat Appearances on MTV Unplugged
00:00:25
Speaker
I'm your host, music journalist, pop culture anthropologist, and Unplugged obsessive, Will Hodge.
00:00:30
Speaker
For our first show of the new year, I wanted to spice up the run of artist interviews I've been doing by sprinkling in another fun solo deep dive episode. Since starting the podcast, one of the most common topics people have asked me about is which artists have appeared on MTV Unplugged more than once.
00:00:46
Speaker
I mentioned quite a few examples in my first three Unplugged 101 episodes covering the show's full history, and two of my artist interviews so far, Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs and MC Light, have both appeared on Unplugged twice.
Impact of Nirvana's Unplugged on New Artists
00:00:59
Speaker
But because the topic is actually one of my favorite conversational rabbit trails associated with the show, I thought it might be really fun to do an entire episode devoted to laying out the surprisingly robust list of artists More than 40 of them who have appeared on MTV Unplugged more than once in one way or another. But before we get into today's main show, just one quick, admittedly self-indulgent, announcement. No Depression is an incredible roots music outlet that I get the privilege of frequently writing for.
00:01:27
Speaker
And while sometimes I've written about, say, Johnny Cash's connection to Trainsongs or Wilco's recording of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, over the years my truly awesome editor, Hey Hillary, has also let me write quite a few pieces that have had a decidedly 90s bent to them, like interviewing Adam Duritz and T-Bone Burnett about Counting Crows' debut album, or chatting with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine about Pete Seeger's influence.
00:01:51
Speaker
So it should come as no surprise that I've also written about MTV Unplugged a time or two for them, including my newest piece that appears in our most recent winter print journal. Tying into the 30th anniversary of Nirvana's Unplugged in New York album release last November, my article analyzes a batch of younger next-generation roots artists who have, unbeknownst to each other, It all recently covered the century-old folk song, Where Did You Sleep Last Night, also known as In the Pines, and who all point to Nirvana's unplugged version as their point of introduction and inspiration, as opposed to the more popularized Leadbelly or Bill Monroe versions that are often discussed in Roots music circles.
00:02:33
Speaker
I was able to interview three truly amazing artists, Addie of Victoria, Amethyst Kaya, and Tara Lightfoot, and I also included some insights from Jake Blunt and Caitlin Butz as well. It was really cool to hear them all talk about how Kurt's reverence and delivery of the song on Unplugged impacted them as teenagers and inspired them to eventually add their own unique links into the song's long chain of hand-me-down sonic evolution.
00:02:57
Speaker
You may have a local record shop in your area that carries No Depression, or you can order a copy, either print or digital, from the No Depression online store. But if nothing else, I at least recommend checking out all of those artists I mentioned just to see if something strikes your own
MTV Unplugged Two Timers Club
00:03:11
Speaker
musical fancy. As a sampling, here's a little taste of Amethyst Kaya's version that came out early last year.
00:03:24
Speaker
Alrighty, let's get into today's show.
00:03:28
Speaker
So, much like Saturday Night Live has their celebrated Five Timers Club, for people who have hosted the show five times or more, I'm respectfully but derivatively calling this exclusive grouping of artists the MTV Unplugged Two Timers Club. And yes, in the same way that members of the SNL Five Timers Club have their own totem, that swanky velvet smoking jacket, I too will be inducting members into the MTV Unplugged Two Timers Club with their own symbolic artifact.
00:03:55
Speaker
A shiny VMA Moonman style trophy featuring a double neck acoustic guitar. for this little moon man right here okay pretty cute and he he's a door while i like him Imaginary though it may be, I'm sure long time MTV viewers can picture it perfectly.
00:04:09
Speaker
Like I said, there will be more than 40 artists discussed in today's episode, so let me lay out a few guideposts to hopefully keep it from all blurring together into a big confusing mess. I'll be breaking the inductions out via four main categories. Two shows, one and a half shows, two spots, and non-band musicians.
00:04:29
Speaker
While these are somewhat self-explanatory naming conventions, I'll clarify the terminology as follows. Two shows means two full standalone episodes. One and a half shows means one full standalone episode and one partial episode. More on the word partial when we get there. Two spots means two segments or guest spots within larger shows. Non-band musicians means an auxiliary musician who wasn't an official member of the band.
00:04:55
Speaker
I'll also try to make things a little more intuitively digestible by dropping in a few of these as we move through the four main categories. And I'll also have producer Amanda read out the inductee names to jazz up the siren-like lull of my dulcet tones. So without further ado, let the MTV Unplugged two-timers club induction festivities begin. Alrighty, first up is the two shows category.
REM's Influence and Appearances
00:05:18
Speaker
Artists inducted into this group have played two full standalone episodes of MTV Unplugged in one manner or another. There will actually be three subsections under this category because who doesn't love a little fussy linguistic precision? But for all intents and purposes, every artist in this category had two separate standalone Unplugged episodes devoted to just themselves.
00:05:39
Speaker
First up is what I'm calling the two shows, Quintessential Unplugged Subsection. And so far, there's only one band to induct. While every other act in this two shows category has some sort of qualifier or asterisk that sets it just slightly left of center from being considered a quintessential unplugged exemplar, my beloved REM did two separate unplugged episodes on the original MTV network during the show's biggest era of pop cultural impact.
00:06:09
Speaker
What's interesting is that REM didn't do either one of their episodes during the most prominent peaks of Unplug's 92 through 94 ascendancy. Their first appearance was in 1991 during the show's second year, that smaller regrouping season where it was leveling up its talent roster but still finding its legs underneath the single artist showcase format. At the time, REM was promoting their chart-topping multi-platinum out of time record but had shocked audiences by deciding to take a break from the grueling onslaught of touring they had conducted throughout the 1980s. This made their Unplugged appearance one of the very few places to catch them live for a couple years. 91 was unquestionably an incredible and influential season for Unplugged, but since it was right before the whole Clapton Carry mainstream explosion, some of its absolute standout episodes like REM don't always get their well-deserved shine. Their second appearance was in 2001,
00:07:09
Speaker
Where the alt-rock elder statesman, now operating as a trio, beautifully kicked off the Unplugged 2.0 reboot with a brand new album, one of the best back catalogs in the business, and three phenomenally in sync touring musicians.
00:07:23
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Once again, while this was still within the broader era of Unplugged's most preeminent decade of cultural impact, it was still on the outer edges of that footprint. Regardless, while they essentially bookended the show's brightest run, they were still firmly within that imperial mix and eventually released both shows as proper albums in 2014.
International Influence and Unique Episodes
00:07:42
Speaker
I promise I'll be moving through all of the other inductees at a bit more of a clip,
00:07:45
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But since REM is the premier act to most easily and accurately define the played unplug twice criteria, I wanted to properly give them their due. Plus, you know, they just absolutely rule. Next up is the Two Shows International Markets subsection, featuring three distinct bands who film two separate unplugs for some of MTV's international markets.
00:08:07
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cafe to cuba First up is Grammy-winning Mexican alt-rock band Cafe de Cuba who did two episodes for the MTV Latin America version of the channel. Their first unplug was broadcast in 1995 and their second was in 2019. Both of their episodes were also released as albums though their first one not until 2005 and their 2019 episode is notable for featuring not one but two special guests that will both appear later on in this episode.
00:08:34
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fanta four The second act in this subsection is Die Fantastischen wir or Fantaphor as they're more commonly known. A German hip-hop group who did two episodes for MTV Germany, one in 2000 and another in 2012. Their episodes look incredibly cool because instead of filming in a television studio, they actually did both of their unplugged shows from inside of a cave. Both episodes were also turned into albums and their second one went top 10 in Austria and Switzerland and went all the way to number one in Germany.
00:09:05
Speaker
Mando Diao. The third band in this subsection is Swedish indie rocker Mando Diao, who filmed a stunning episode in Berlin in 2010 that featured a handful of exciting musical guests, including actor-musician Gen X icon Juliette Lewis, Lana Del Rey, and Ray Davies of the Kinks. They filmed a second Unplugged in Stockholm in 2023, this time focusing solely on songs from the Swedish-language side of their catalog.
00:09:30
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And simply because I'm shamelessly Gen X to the innermost core of my being, here's a little bit of Juliette Lewis joining them on the song High Heels from their 2010 Unplugged.
Variations of Unplugged Episodes
00:09:51
Speaker
I'm calling this next subsection Two Shows Asterisk. This grouping actually houses quite a few entries that fall into the camp of having one standard unplugged and one non-standard unplugged, though I should say that there are a few different variants of how I'll be employing the term non-standard.
00:10:07
Speaker
neo young The first entry in this standard, non-standard subsection is Neil Young, who technically has three entries with varying degrees of unplugness. If you listen to my Unplugged 101 Part 1 episode covering 1989 to 1993, you heard the story of how Neil Young technically had an unplugged episode way back in the very first season of 1990.
00:10:30
Speaker
Hi, welcome to MTV Unplugged. I'm Jules Scheer. Tonight we have a very special performance by Neil Young, taped exclusively for our show. I hope you enjoy it. Here's Neil Young.
00:10:42
Speaker
But instead of the intimate audience in a small studio setting, this was Neil playing outdoors on a big stage in front of a huge crowd. It looked just like a normal concert video and was eventually released as such under the title, Freedom, a live acoustic concert with zero unplugged branding on the box or the film print. It was a wonderful acoustic Neil performance, but by no means a proper unplugged episode by any measure.
00:11:06
Speaker
His first actual unplugged attempt occurred in December of 92 in New York City during the same Ed Sullivan theater filming session that gave us the amazing Arrested Development and Katie Lang episodes. But Young ended up being so unhappy with his band's performance that he tried to immediately confiscate the master tapes and ultimately convinced MTV not to air it. He thankfully agreed to a quick reschedule and ended up taping the unplugged We All Know and Love in Los Angeles in February of 93 and it absolutely rules.
00:11:50
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The performance was so good that it landed the season opening slot, was released as an album, and helped kick off that multi-year run where he gained a newer, younger audience segment by doing things like playing a jaw-dropping version of Rockin' in the Free World with Pearl Jam at the 93 VMAs, releasing his quasi-Cobain-informed Sleeps with Angels album in 94, and then recording the collaborative Mirrorball album with Pearl Jam in 95.
00:12:15
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tony bennett The second inductee in this two-shows asterisk subsection is the late Tony Bennett. Bennett, of course, had an incredibly huge moment with his first unplugged in 1994, which was widely celebrated both critically and commercially, won two Grammys, including Album of the Year, and cemented him into the mainstream pop-cultural consciousness in a way he hadn't been in decades.
00:12:38
Speaker
His 94 Unplugged was also notable for its killer quartet of Special Guest, two of which didn't air. Jay Mask is from Dinosaur Jr. and Evan Dando of the Lemonheads, and two of which will appear a bit later in this very episode. Bennett's second Unplugged, what I'm calling the non-standard one, occurred in 2021, and it was the program's first, and so far only, double-billed duet-style show, as he shared the stage with pop star polymath Lady Gaga.
00:13:05
Speaker
MTV's Unplugged presents Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga for one extraordinary night. Their favorite duets stripped down. MTV Unplugged, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga premieres Thursday, December 16th at 9 on MTV. The duo performed a handful of songs from Love for Sale, their recently released album of Cole Porter covers, and the show ended up being Bennett's final televised performance before his passing in the summer of 2023.
00:13:30
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Here's a little snippet of the just shy of turning 95 years old Bennett channeling almost 60 years of singing Fly Me To The Moon with Lady Gaga both literally and figuratively sitting at his feet in revered admiration.
00:13:55
Speaker
The next batch of inductees into this two-shows asterisk subsection is a trio of performers who played a standard MTV Unplugged episode and a non-standard VH1 Unplugged episode when those discordantly named but technically canon sessions were a thing. Those three acts are... the black crow ...who shared an early Season 1 episode of MTV Unplugged with Tesla in 1990 and then played their very electrified VH1 Unplugged in 2008.
00:14:22
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lynnie kravit who did an incredibly cool but underrated MTV Unplugged in 1994, and then also played a very electrified VH1 Unplugged in 2007. Adele. Who did her MTV Unplugged during the show's impressive 2009 reboot, and then did her VH1 Unplugged less than two years later in early 2011, during which she gave us her stunning cover of the Carole King-pinned Aretha Franklin popularized, You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman.
00:14:55
Speaker
The final grouping of inductees into this two-shows asterisk subsection are a quartet of artists who played a standard Unplugged episode and also a non-standard MTV Unplugged at Home virtual performance in the spring of 2020 as part of the worldwide Shelter in Place community mitigation strategies during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Those four artists are... Melissa Etheridge.
00:15:18
Speaker
whose beautiful 1995 Unplugged episode featured her performing completely solo except for her mind-blowing duet of Thunder Road with none other than the boss himself, je who decided to flip the script a bit by transforming her usually solo acoustic live set into a wildly successful full band affair on her 97 Unplugged episode.
00:15:40
Speaker
Marcus Mumford, who technically played a VH1 unplugged in 2011 with his band Mumford and Sons and then did his 2020 MTB unplugged at home as a solo set. So really a double-astric on this one. Miley Cyrus.
00:15:54
Speaker
who did her a much-discussed MTV Unplugged in 2014, where she duetted with Madonna, covered Arctic Monkeys in Dolly Parton, and also twerked on someone dressed up in one of those elementary school play horse costumes. I should also note her Fall 2020 Unplugged wasn't in the batch of self-recorded shelter-in-place ones from the spring, but was still definitely within that COVID-era Unplugged grouping, as evidenced by her responsibly mass backing band calling themselves the Social Distancers.
00:16:23
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Before we move into our second main category, let's hear just a smidge of that glorious Melissa Etheridge Bruce Springsteen duet from her 95 episode.
Guest Performers and Partial Appearances
00:16:42
Speaker
One and a half shows. Next up is our two-timers club inductees into the one and a half shows category. All of these artists will fall into the camp of having done one full standalone episode and one partial episode, with partial being defined a couple different ways as we go. The majority of the partial qualifiers will fall into the grouping of being the surprise special guest on someone else's unplugged, but we'll also have a couple different bookends around that larger list.
00:17:09
Speaker
Let's start off with the one and a half shows both standard subsection, which so far only includes one band. 10,000 Maniacs As I've mentioned on multiple episodes, including my super fun interview with Natalie Merchant, 10,000 Maniacs is the only band to first play Unplugged during the show's original two-artist shared build format and then came back to play their own standalone Unplugged.
00:17:33
Speaker
They shared a very early Season 1 episode with singer-songwriter Michael Penn in 1990 and then of course delivered that incredibly stunning, incredibly popular 93 episode that generated a triple platinum album and a triple format radio hit with their intoxicating cover of Patti Smith's Because the Night.
00:17:59
Speaker
The next collection of inductees, the one and a half shows surprise special guest subsection, contains our largest single batch of inductees, over a dozen of them. And these are artists who film their own standalone unplugged and then later showed up as a special guest on someone else's unplugged, or the opposite in just a few cases.
00:18:18
Speaker
So in hopes of not getting too bogged down, I'm going to move through this grouping a bit more like a list with somewhat less contextualization. Also, these will be in order of when each artist standalone unplugged was originally broadcast. Cool? Alright, let's get into the list.
00:18:33
Speaker
The Cure. The Cure delivered an exceptionally cool unplugged during the smaller second season of 1991, and it'll hopefully one day get a proper release because, I mean, come on, it's one of the best unplugs of those early pre-album release years. Then, 15 years later, three of the group's members, frontman Robert Smith, bassist Simon Gallop, and guitarist Pearl Thompson, were invited back to be the surprise special guest for Korn's strikingly inspired unplugged to play a wildly cool mashup of Korn's Make Me Bad and the cures in between days.
00:19:13
Speaker
I should also make a note here that maybe we should invent a variant of the Two Timers Club trophy that has a triple neck acoustic guitar to account for the few individuals who actually appeared on Unplugged three times, as Pearl Thompson also appeared in the 94 Jimmy Page Robert Plant unleaded episode playing some tasty banjo and guitar.
00:19:32
Speaker
Elvis Costello. Just like The Cure, Costello did his own standalone unplug during that small but mighty 91 season. And then he returned to the show in 94 as one of Tony Bennett's surprise special guest, duetting with the famed crooner on the Gershwin's They Can't Take That Away From Me, which actually got its own standalone single release.
00:19:51
Speaker
eric clachton If you're familiar with MTV Unplugged at all, or are one of the 26 million individuals who purchased his Unplugged album, you're probably aware of Clapton's monumental Unplugged episode from 1992. But you may be less familiar with the fact that he also returned to the show in 97 as one of Babyface's surprise special guests to perform two songs.
00:20:13
Speaker
His own triple Grammy-winning global smash hit, Change the World, which was produced by Babyface, and the song, Talk to Me, from Babyface's 1996 album, The Day, whose album version also featured Clapton on guitar. Clapton actually played an electric guitar on both of his Babyface unplugged songs, but of all the things we could hold against him, we'll just let that one slide. Especially in light of how our next inductee handled his unplugged.
00:20:39
Speaker
bruce springsteen Whereas Clapton was the 92 opener, Springsteen provided the other bookend, closing out Unplugged's phenomenal third season with a very much plugged, cranked amps barn burner of an episode that saw him playing an acoustic guitar on only three songs. He returned to the Unplugged stage in 95, this time with acoustic firmly in hand as the surprise special guest of Melissa Etheridge, where, as I already mentioned, the magical one night only duo performed an arrestingly cool duet of Born to Run.
00:21:09
Speaker
katie lang In my opinion, Lang's 93 Unplugged is another prime example of a genuinely phenomenal Unplugged episode that gets a bit lost to the sands of time simply because it didn't get a proper album release. Though I should note that Travesty was somewhat corrected in 2017 when she released eight of the episode's songs on a bonus disc attached to the 25th anniversary reissue of her Grammy-winning Anjanu album.
00:21:35
Speaker
She made a quick reappearance the very next year as a surprise special guest on Tony Bennett's 94 Unplugged to duet on the 1930 jazz standard Moon Glow. Much like the Costello-Bennett pairing, Lang's Unplugged Duet was released as a standalone single, but she also got to perform the duet a second time with Bennett at the 95 Grammy
00:22:06
Speaker
bonehead arthurs As the long time and reportedly returning rhythm guitarist for Oasis, Bonehead appeared on the band's infamous Liam-less Unplugged in 96, and then again as a surprise special guest on Liam's genuinely great Prodigal Son Returns Solo Unplugged in 2019.
00:22:24
Speaker
Liam had Bonehead join him for four Oasis songs that night. Some might say, Stand By Me, Sad Song, and Cast No Shadow, and also leaned on him for a quick bit of comedic relief to acknowledge the elephant in the room regarding his previous unplugged debacle. This one's called Won't.
00:22:44
Speaker
I want a dedicated to Bonehead who gets to do MTV unplugged twice. Andrea Echeverri. Representing the first artist in this subgroup to be a surprise special guest before getting their own standalone unplugged, Colombian singer-songwriter Echeverri first appeared on Unplugged in 1996 as a guest of Argentinian alt rocker Soda Stereo to sing on their bluesy reworking of En la Ciudad de la Furia. In a quick Katie Lang-like turnaround, she then returned the very next year to film on Unplugged with her own band, Atercio Pilados, where they did a really cool cover of Queen's Play the Game.
00:23:35
Speaker
Diego Torres. Argentinian pop singer Diego Torres filmed his own Unplugged in 2004, and it generated both a Latin pop top ten hit and a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Pop Album. He was also a special guest on the widely celebrated, star-studded Los Tigres del Norte Unplugged in 2011.
00:23:54
Speaker
Julieta Venegas Grab another triple-neck guitar-adorned moon man, we've got another three-timer here. Mexican pop star and multi-instrumentalist Julieta Venegas made her first unplugged appearance as one of Diego Torres's special guest on his 2004 episode, where she sang and played accordion on the song, Suenos.
00:24:13
Speaker
She then reappeared on the show two years later as a special guest of Brazilian singer-songwriter La Nini during his 2006 Unplugged episode, once again singing and playing accordion, this time on the song Miedo. Finally, in 2008, she was given her own standalone Unplugged, which garnered her four Latin Grammy nominations, two of which she won, and also spent ten weeks at number one on the Mexican album charts and became a top five hit stateside on the Billboard Latin pop albums chart.
00:24:42
Speaker
one Much like Vanagas, Colombian singer Juánez initially waded into unplugged waters as a surprise special guest, first appearing on the double Grammy-winning Los Tigres episode in 2011. He returned the very next year for his own inspired unplugged, which featured 16 musicians and a 32-voice choir.
00:25:02
Speaker
The episode and subsequent album proved to be a monumental milestone in his career, generating a 2012 Latin Grammy win for Album of the Year, a 2013 Grammy win for Best Latin Pop Album, a 12 times platinum certification in Columbia, and a double number one ranking on Billboard's Top Latin Albums and Latin Pop Albums chart in the US.
00:25:24
Speaker
Morten Harkett. Legendary aha frontman Morten Harkett continued the trend of guest spot first unplugged appearances by originally showing up on the Scorpion's scenic 2013 unplugged episode recorded outdoors over three nights at the Lycobettis Amphitheater in Athens, Greece. There he was invited by the German hard rockers to sing on their global smash hit Wind of Change.
00:25:47
Speaker
He returned in 2017 for Aha's own celebrated and equally scenic Unplugged episode that was filmed over two gorgeous summer nights at the stunningly backdrop Giskey Harbor Hall. By the way, if you didn't happen to catch this one the first time around, do yourself a favor and get their MTV Unplugged Summer Solstice CD-DVD combo release as this is easily one of the top tier musically inventive and visually stunning Unplugged episodes in the show's entire canon.
00:26:29
Speaker
That brings us to our other One and a Half Shows Bookend, a subsection I'll call One and a Half Shows Astrid, which so far only has one inductee. why cleverre jean I'm using the term Astrid again here because both of Wyclef's unplugged appearances occurred in somewhat unconventional, non-standard environments.
00:26:48
Speaker
He first appeared on Unplugged as the first artist to help kick off the 2020 MTV Unplugged at Home virtual performances during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. And it's a pretty great little three song set featuring just Wyclef on a nylon string guitar.
00:27:11
Speaker
His second unplugged appearance was in 2023, during that super enjoyable, but let's call a spade a spade, unplugged in name only episode of MTV Unplugged Presents, a hip-hop 50th celebration of Jersey's finest. It was an absolutely incredible live hip-hop performance retrospective, and I genuinely love seeing all of the performances, but unplugged it was not.
00:27:33
Speaker
During the ensemble style show featuring artists like Queen Latifah, Redman, Tretch, Heather B, Old School Legends, The Sugarhill Gang, and many more, Wyclef's section featured him playing the songs 9-1-1 and Gone Till November on a electric guitar.
Double Appearances Without Standalone Episodes
00:27:58
Speaker
And that closes out our one and a half shows category. Let's move right on into our third main category, two spots. Inductees into the two spots category may not have filmed their own standalone unplugged episode, so far at least, but they have still appeared twice on the show in some sort of partial manner, either as a surprise special guest or in their own segment of a larger ensemble style show. I'll lay out this list of a half dozen inductees in order of when their first unplugged appearance was originally broadcast.
00:28:27
Speaker
which interestingly enough, apart from one inductee, all collectively took place between 1991 and ninety ninety three mc like If you've listened to my episode with MC Lyte from last year, you've heard the story of how the hip-hop pioneer appeared on the show twice in two of my favorite unplugged experiments. The first was in 1991, when she performed her song Cappuccino on the unparalleled Yo Unplugged Hip-Hop Show alongside A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and LL Cool J. She returned in 1994 to appear on the second spoken word unplugged and delivered her deeply personal poem, An Open Letter to My Biological Father.
00:29:06
Speaker
shaa Shawnee's first wowed and unplugged audience in 1992 when she appeared on the R and&B Unplugged Ensemble show that also featured Boyz II Men and Joe Public.
00:29:25
Speaker
Her second time around was as one of the surprise special guests for Babyface's 97 Unplugged, where she covered Breathe Again, Tony Braxton's first big hit which was originally written and co-produced by Babyface.
00:29:38
Speaker
casey and jojo Speaking of Babyface's 97 Unplugged, one of the other surprise special guests on that show, you know, other than Stevie Wonder and Eric Clapton, was chart-topping sibling duo Casey and JoJo, who sang I Care About You, originally from the Soul Food soundtrack, with Babyface and his two brothers, Kevin and Melvin.
00:29:57
Speaker
That performance was Casey and JoJo's second time on Unplugged, following their slot on the 93 Uptown Unplugged record label review style show when they were in Jodeci. That episode featured Jodeci performing alongside fellow Uptown Records label mates Heavy D and the Boys, Father MC, Christopher Williams, and our next inductee, and also turning out their incredible dual format radio hit with their cover of Stevie Wonder's Lately.
00:30:31
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with
00:30:38
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Mary J. Blige. Speaking of Uptown Records 93 Unplugged, the Grammy-winning queen of hip-hop soul Mary J. Blige also performed on that show as she was riding the wave of her chart-topping recently certified quadruple platinum album, West of 411. She made her Unplugged return in 2001 as one of the surprise special guests of Jay-Z and the Roots during their stellar Unplugged 2.0 episode.
00:31:03
Speaker
Performing a mash-up of Jay's Can't Knock the Hustle, a track she appeared on from his 96-debut Reasonable Doubt mixed with her own smash hit of the moment, Family Affair, from her No More Drama album.
00:31:26
Speaker
As an interesting side note here, there was also an ill-fated press release that came out in 2007 announcing some forthcoming Unplugged episodes that hadn't exactly been filmed yet, and Blige's name was included in that list. Even though four of the five episodes on that list never materialized, I'm still fashioning an aspirational triple-neck guitar variant for Blige in the hopes that one day she will get her own very much deserved standalone Unplugged episode.
00:31:52
Speaker
david byrnes The 10,000 Maniacs Unplugged episode from 93 was so stellar on its own merit that the trio of covers they did with their surprise special guest, former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, didn't completely make the TV broadcast, was kept off the album entirely and only appeared in full on the VHS release. Though that has since been rectified with last year's deluxe reissue of the triple platinum 10,000 Maniacs MTV Unplugged album featuring those three songs as bonus tracks.
00:32:21
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Burns showed back up on Unplugged in 2019, this time again as a surprise special guest, a fellow two-timers club inductee's cafe takuba.
00:32:42
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maggie este When the show did their incredibly cool spoken word unplugged episodes in 93 and 94, one of my all-time favorite poets, the late Magiesta, performed three pieces and even served as a quasi-MC, occasionally introducing some of the other poets.
00:32:58
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a fierce writer and a very fine human being ladies and gentlemen jim carroll During her first unplugged appearance in 93, the one that inescapably transfixed me into her creative orbit, Estet performed a duet with Reggie Gaines and also presented her solo piece, The Stupid Jerk I'm Obsessed With, chaotically supported by the night's backing band, Huge Voodoo. but
00:33:32
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Gustavo Santo Alaya.
Non-band Musicians' Contributions
00:33:34
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Closing out the Two Spots category is the only inductee of this grouping to actually play the surprise special guest role three times. Oscar-winning Argentinian producer, composer, and musician Gustavo Santo Alaya was first brought out as a guest of Cafe Tacuba during their first Unplugged in 1995, where he played guitar on the track Essa Noche and co-produced the subsequent album release.
00:33:57
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In 2008, he was invited back to Unplugged by fellow two-timers club inductee, Julieta Venegas, to sing and play banjo on her song, Algun Día, which was released as a single and hit number one in Mexico. He was invited back once more in 2019, when Cafe Tacuba had him co-produce their Un Segundo MTV Unplugged episode and appear on the song Olita de Altima.
00:34:30
Speaker
Non-band musicians. And that brings us to the fourth and final main category of the MTV Unplugged two-timers club inductions. This grouping is for musicians who played Unplugged more than once, but who weren't official members of either of the bands they were supporting. Once again, I'll list these out in order of their first Unplugged outing. Patrick Warren.
00:34:50
Speaker
Alongside 10,000 Maniacs, composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and Chamberlain aficionado Patrick Warren shares the mantle of being the MTV Unplugged two-timers club inductees with the earliest canonical appearance. His first Unplugged appearance occurred during the show's second official episode following both the pilot and the smithereens Graham Parker kickoff, where he played piano and xylophone behind singer-songwriter Michael Penn during the episode Penn shared with 10,000 Maniacs.
00:35:19
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Warren then returned in 97 to play in Fiona Apple's backing band during one of my most favorite unplugged episodes to sadly have never been officially released in any capacity.
00:35:37
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mitchell fru While Froome has officially been a member of Crowded House since 2020, he was originally just the auxiliary keyboardist and producer of their first three albums when they asked him to play piano on their early Season 1 Unplugged episode in 1990. His second time on Unplugged was in 99 when he contributed Piano and Hammond Organ for Irish sibling quartet The Cores during their widely celebrated Covers Rich episode.
00:36:12
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Nathan E. Well, we've got another three-timer in the two-timers club. Legendary bassist Nathan East is easily one of the most respected and celebrated bass players in all of rock, jazz, and R and&B. His extensive resume is quite a murderer's row of collaborations, albums, tours, and one-off live appearances, including such notable moments as playing with Kenny Loggins at the original Live Aid and performing with Daft Punk, Stevie Wonder, Nile Rodgers, and Pharrell Williams at the 2014 Grammys.
00:36:41
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But for the purposes of our MTV Unplugged two-timers club inductions today, he first played bass for Clapton's massively successful 92 Unplugged, then again for Phil Collins' 94 Unplugged, the one that mostly aired on MTV Europe, and then a third time for Babyface's 97 Unplugged.
00:37:08
Speaker
greg lee Much like East, Greg Lees is a highly sought after studio and touring musician who has appeared on an insane amount of albums by a ton of top tier artists you know and love. Rock fans will mostly know him from his work with legends like Clapton, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Brown, Bonnie Ray, Joe Cocker, and many, many others.
00:37:28
Speaker
But 90s alt-rock fans like myself may be more s stoked to see his name in the credits of albums like Fiona Apple's title, Bex O'Dellay, Smashing Pumpkins, Melancholy, and The Infinite Sadness, and Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend and 100% Fun Records, just to name a few. As far as unplugged appearances go, Lease played guitar, dobro, mandolin, and wisenborn on Katie Lang's episode in 93, and he played mandolin, dobro, and a few other streamed things in Jules Band during her 97 episode as well.
00:37:59
Speaker
perry montagu mason Revered British violinist Perry Montague Mason has the distinction of not only having appeared on three notable 90s unplugged episodes, but also having two of them appear back to back in the same year. He first appeared on Unplugged with the London Metropolitan Orchestra as part of the Page and Plant Unledded project in 94.
00:38:29
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Then in 96, he was first part of the string quintet that backed the Knoll fronted version of Oasis during their brilliant Unplugged that was filmed that August, and then quickly followed that up by playing with an 8-piece string ensemble during George Michael's Unplugged that was filmed that October.
00:39:00
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steve sidwell Surprisingly enough, there was another in-demand British musician that appeared alongside Mason at both of those 96 London-based Unplugged sessions. Grammy-winning composer Steve Sidwell is credited as playing brass for the Oasis Unplugged, but I think it was trumpet specifically. And he also played trumpet and flugelhorn during George Michael's Unplugged.
00:39:29
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Eric Friedlander. Yet another fantastically talented three-timer here, cellist Eric Friedlander first appeared on Unplugged as part of the harp cello clarinet instrumental trio that dynamically expanded the sonic palette of Hole's episode in 95. He then returned in 99 as part of the string quintet that backed Alanis Morissette's Unplugged and helped send Uninvited into the euphoric sonic stratosphere.
00:39:55
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He returned once more in 2006 as one of four cellists that accompanied Korn during their wildly inventive unplugged that was broadcast in early 2007.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:40:10
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And that brings us to the end of the non-band musicians category and wraps up the full induction list of the MTV Unplugged two-timers club. However, I do have one more special inductee I'd like to acknowledge. An honorable mention, if you will, of someone who has appeared on more Unplugged episodes than any other individual so far. Of course, I'm talking about original Unplugged host, Jewel Shear. Hi, this is MTV Unplugged and I'm Jewel Shear.
00:40:38
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When the nascent Unplugged project kicked off in 1989, Sheer was hand-picked as the host to hold the initial two-artist song swap format together. Already known as a prolific singer-songwriter that had written hits for other artists like The Bengals, Alison Moyet, and Cyndi Lauper, Sheer would help contextualize the whole Unplugged idea for the audience, chat with the acts between performances, and even play a song or two with them. And that's exactly what he did, at least for the first dozen episodes or so.
00:41:07
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Go back and listen to my very first episode covering Unplugged from 89 to 93 if you want to get the whole story about how Don Henley helped initiate the swerve into the Unplugged we all come to know and love. But prior to that switch up, Sheer appeared in some capacity on Unplugged's first 12 episodes, including the pilot.
00:41:26
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For most of those shows, he did the full hosting-performing combo and ended up fashioning some really cool acoustic performances with artists like Squeeze, 10,000 Maniacs, Indigo Girls, Crowded House, The Church, and others, sometimes playing his own songs and other times working with the artists to cover Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Sam Cooke, Neil Young, or Jimmy Rogers. For some of those episodes, like the transformative Henley one, he only did his hosting interviewing responsibilities.
00:41:55
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For that ah curious Neil Young concert video masquerading as an unplugged episode, he only introduced the show. But either way, in some way, shape, or form, Jules Shear appeared on a dozen episodes of MTV Unplugged and therefore is easily inducted into the MTV Unplugged two-timers club in his own special category.
00:42:14
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While there are a lot of magnificent Jules Unplugged performances to pick from, my own personal favorite comes from all the way back on the pilot episode with Squeeze and Sid Straw, where Jules sang his own song, If We Never Meet Again, with Straw on background vocals and former Cars guitarist Elliot Easton on acoustic.
00:42:45
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And there we go! The MTV Unplugged Two-Timers Club is hereby formed and initiated with our inaugural batch of 40-plus inductees, who are now entitled to all the honors and benefits occurring there too. I genuinely hope to be able to add to this exclusive and admittedly quite trivial club, either through any new Unplugged episodes or reboots that may one day come down the pike, or from you fine individuals letting me know of anyone I may have missed.
00:43:10
Speaker
If you know of someone who has appeared on Unplugged more than once, either as a build artist, special guest, or an auxiliary musician, please let me know so that I can rectify my oversight and get them inducted in a future episode. You can email me, unpluggedrevisited at gmail dot.com, or leave a voicemail by dialing 234-REVISIT. That's 234-738-4748. With your own potential inductee or or any other unplugged related topics you'd like to share, ask about, commend, or correct. Alrighty, that should do it for today's show. We'll be back again in two weeks with another fun episode. As a heads up, producer Amanda, intern Jeff, and myself are in the latter stage throes of moving back to our beloved Chicago, in the dead of winter no less. So please light your Natalie Merchant prayer candles and thank you in advance for your patience if you reach out for anything.
00:43:58
Speaker
It might be a minute before I can respond, but I will get back with you. As always, please take a moment to follow the pod on your platform of choice so that it'll automatically pop into your feed when it goes live. and Until then, my friends, be kind to yourself and look out for each other.