Welcome to a special Sunday feature of The Weekend Stream, which takes a look at one of MTV's great live music programs thanks to a recent reissue of one of its best-known episodes. We're kicking off a five-part deep-dive on every episode of MTV Unplugged that's currently streaming on the station's parent streaming network Paramount+!

If the music video was the most significant concept MTV introduced back in 1981, the word "unplugged" might come in a close second. In 1989, as the cable station began slowly diversifying their blocks of video programming - zeroing in on genres like hip-hop (Yo! MTV Raps), metal (Headbanger's Ball) and even alternative rock (120 Minutes) - they took a chance on an original series, planning to showcase up-and-coming or lesser-known acts at peak musicianship, playing acoustic instruments with as little amplification as possible. Hosted with aw-shucks brio by singer/songwriter Jules Shear (who'd often play with the artists by the episode's end), Unplugged was, at first, a modest addition to the MTV library.

Then, of course, things started to take off. The seeds were kind of planted in the first year, when a nearly-solo Neil Young performance was donated to the show in 1990. But the second season featured a Beatle, in a set that ended up being released as a live album. By the end of the decade, MTV Unplugged was an institution, resulting in more than 30 albums and video releases earning certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America, yielding two Grammy winners for Album of the Year, and becoming a rare, heady mix of art and commerce. By showcasing musicianship as much as image, it established pop performers as "authentic" - whatever that meant - and also gave an opportunity for older acts to connect with a new generation of listeners. It's no surprise MTV has rebooted Unplugged more times than any brand in their portfolio.

This month, the best-selling MTV Unplugged album - Eric Clapton's acclaimed 1992 effort - was remixed, remastered and expanded, with the video converted to HD and screened theatrically. MTV, in kind, did a bunch of music clearances and uploaded dozens of vintage episodes to the Paramount+ streaming network, where you can find Clapton's oddly-titled Unplugged...More Than 30 Years Later and plenty of others. What we're doing, then, is offering a closer look at each episode you can stream: a detailed episode guide, reinstating everything to its original recording and broadcast order and highlighting which titles have been made available as audio or video products. Light some candles, tune up your favorite nylon-string, and get ready for a gentle look back at MTV Unplugged.

SEASON 1

The Smithereens / Graham Parker (rec. at The National Video Center, New York, NY - 12/13/1989; aired 1/28/1990)

The Unplugged format was initially undefined enough to resemble a free for all. The first episode featured three acts trading songs - Chris Difford & Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, indie-rock heroine Syd Straw, and Elliot Easton of The Cars - and the second had Graham Parker and The Smithereens offering new tracks (including The Smithereens' "A Girl Like You" and Parker's "Slash and Burn") before joining up on "Behind the Wall of Sleep" and a double cover of Sam Cooke's "Cupid" and "Chain Gang" that had Shear sitting in.

Availability: "A Girl Like You" and "Behind the Wall of Sleep" were offered as B-sides to 1992's "Top of the Pops" and 1990's "Yesterday Girl," respectively, with the latter appearing on 1995's rarities collection Attack of The Smithereens. The rest of their set, minus opener "Only a Memory," was digitally released by the group in 2012.

Sinéad O'Connor / The Church (rec. at The National Video Center, New York, NY - 1/30/1990; aired 3/18/1990)

One of the last multi-artist Unplugged episodes for a while features separate performances by The Church (the late '80s classic "Under the Milky Way," then-new single "Metropolis") and the late Sinéad O'Connor (performing two tracks from that year's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got), followed by a cover of The Beatles' B-side "Rain" by Shear and The Church's Marty Willson-Piper.

Availability: "Under the Milky Way" was included on a grab-bag video release of performances from the show, 1999's MTV Unplugged Finest Moments Vol. 2, that was released on VHS, laserdisc and DVD.

Neil Young (rec. at The Palladium, New York, NY - 9/5-6/1989; aired 2/25/1990)

Jules Shear's intro bills this as a special performance, and he's not wrong; in fact, this episode actually features the contents of Freedom (A Live Acoustic Concert), which was released on video to promote 1989's Freedom and its hit "Rockin' in the Free World." (Shakey also won an MTV Video Music Award the same week the set was recorded for his infamously-banned promo for "This Note's for You.") On stage at The Palladium, it's just Neil and his acoustic on versions of "Rockin'," "Note," "Ohio," "After the Gold Rush," and a take on"Too Far Gone" backed by Frank "Poncho" Sampedro of Crazy Horse and Ben Keith of The Stray Gators. (Young would later record an oft-discussed boutique appearance for Unplugged after its popularity increased. An initial attempt taping at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York City in December 1992 actually ended with an agitated Young cutting the shoot short; with a full acoustic band - including Nils Lofgren, Nicolette Larson and several members of The Stray Gators - he tried again to greater success in early 1993.)

Availability: Unusually for Young's reissue-packed discography, Freedom (A Live Acoustic Concert) has never escaped its original VHS release - perhaps in part because the latest Archives box cuts off at 1987, two years before it was recorded.

Crowded House / Tim Finn (rec. at Hollywood Center Studios, Los Angeles, CA - 3/30/1990; aired 5/13/1990)

This episode caught Crowded House at an unusual crossroads, deep in the middle of sessions for their third album a year after frontman Neil Finn cut a series of demos written and performed with his older brother/former Split Enz frontman Tim. Only two of those tracks were played for the broadcast, the satirical "Chocolate Cake" and the contemplative "Four Seasons in One Day"; the rest of the set was devoted mostly to Tim's solo numbers and a cover of Hunters & Collectors' "Throw Your Arms Around Me." But the Unplugged performance was a sign of things to come: with the elder Finn joining Crowded House, the brothers' work would bolster the final configuration of 1991's Woodface - a high point in a discography already brimming with greatness.

Availability: Sadly, none of the performance was ever released, though the longtime Finn fan club Frenz of the Enz issued the limited Acoustically Live in 1999 which featured, among other things, the group's rehearsal for the set, done two days prior.

Daryl Hall & John Oates (rec. at Chelsea Studios, New York, NY - 5/17/1990; aired 6/5/1990)

Happier times for the music industry's best-selling (and most estranged) duo, who offered stripped-down versions of "She's Gone" and "Out of Touch," covers of The Beatles ("Don't Let Me Down") and Elvis Presley ("Can't Help Falling in Love"), and a preview of that fall's forthcoming Change of Season, their final major-label album, which featured the pop hit "So Close" and a take on Mel & Tim's "Starting All Over Again."

Availability: While the set never was released on disc or video, it did show an early glimmer of the series' influence. "So Close" was reworked for single release by producers Danny Kortchmar and Jon Bon Jovi - but Daryl's original arrangement was reflected in an alternate studio version that closed the Change of Season album, billed as the "Unplugged" version.

Elton John (rec. at Chelsea Studios, New York, NY - 5/17/1990; aired 6/12/1990)

Recorded the year the British pop icon finally kicked his drug and alcohol habits, the mood of Elton John's piano-and-vocal performance on Unplugged is as glowing as his hot pink baseball cap and track suit. It offers delightful versions of several of his biggest hits, including the most recent, "Sacrifice."

Availability: Though several artists had hit Unplugged albums by 1994, Warner Bros. Records issued a collection of single performances from the performances up to then. The Unplugged Collection Volume One included Elton's take on "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," which had recently been a smash hit for George Michael (with a guesting Elton).

The Allman Brothers Band (rec. at The National Video Center, New York, NY - 11/19/1990; aired 12/9/1990)

Early episodes of Unplugged were a half hour with a commercial break; "Mountain Jam," off The Allman Brothers Band's Eat a Peach, took up two sides and ran longer. So how were they gonna work on this show? Well, it wasn't a Beacon gig, but the recently-reformed group - original members Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Butch Trucks and Jaimoe plus new members Warren Haynes, Allen Woody and Johnny Neel - gave a fine stripped-down performance in support of the group's then-new Seven Turns.

Availability: "Midnight Rider" made it onto the video compilation MTV Unplugged Finest Moments Vol. 1.

Aerosmith (rec. at The Ed Sullivan Theater, New York, NY - 8/11/1990; aired 12/19/1990)

After a shocking comeback that saw Toxic Twins Steven Tyler and Joe Perry kick their habits (other than writing huge arena-rockers with Desmond Child and others) and attain massive commercial success, Aerosmith's Unplugged is a quintessential example of the formula: played in the round - Tyler passes the mic to Perry from inches away on "Train Kept A-Rollin'" - and primarily focused on classics from the group's early Columbia years like "Dream On" and "Toys in the Attic."

Availability: Sadly, none of this episode made to an album or video, which is a shame, as the set is apparently twice as long and packed with blues covers.

SEASON 2

Paul McCartney (rec. at Limehouse TV Studios, London, England - 1/25/1991; aired 4/3/1991) mislabeled under Season 1

A major coup for the nascent MTV Unplugged, Paul McCartney's intimate set - recorded just months after his last world tour was chronicled on Tripping the Live Fantastic - was exactly the sort of spontaneous magic fans would soon immediately associate with the series. The set offered off-beat selections from The Beatles' and Paul's solo catalogues ("Here, There and Everywhere," "She's a Woman," "Every Night," "That Would Be Something"), covers aplenty from Gene Vincent ("Be-Bop-a-Lula") to Bill Withers (a take on "Ain't No Sunshine" where bassist Hamish Stuart sings and McCartney drums), and even the sentimental "I Lost My Little Girl," the first song the teenage Paul ever wrote.

Availability: Macca further legitimized the program with an initially limited release called Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) featuring 17 tracks from the set. (It reached the Top 20 in America and the Top 10 in England.) Two of the five tracks heard on the episode but not on the album (folk standard "Midnight Special" and another Beatles B-side, "Things We Said Today") were included on the CD single to "Biker Like An Icon," and later, on a 2CD reissue of parent album Off the Ground. Portions of the video were included in the DVD box set The McCartney Years.

Sting (rec. at The National Video Center, New York, NY - 3/5/1991; aired 4/10/1991)

For the promotional cycle to 1991's The Soul Cages, Sting brought his bodiless double bass "Brian" (and a crack backing band that featured longtime guitarist Dominic Miller, David Sancious on keyboards, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and one-named percussionist Vinx, a signee to Sting's Pangaea label) to the Unplugged stage for a set that included favorites from the album ("All This Time," "Mad About You") and hits by The Police ("Message in a Bottle," "Every Breath You Take"). Ironically, he also covered "Ain't No Sunshine."

Availability: This episode was released on videocassette by A&M Records with bonus interview footage.

Elvis Costello (rec. at Warner Hollywood Studios, Los Angeles, CA - 6/3/1991; aired 7/3/1991)

Backed by the "Rude 5" - guitarist Marc Ribot, Wrecking Crew keyboardist Larry Knechtel, legendary bassist Jerry Scheff and Pete Thomas, Costello's drummer in The Attractions and The Impostors - Costello stuck mostly to songs from then-newest album Mighty Like a Rose, albeit in heavily-rearranged versions.

Availability: "Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over)" and Spike favorite "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" were used as B-sides at the time, later reissued on Mighty's Rhino deluxe edition alongside "The Other Side of Summer" (initially deemed the "Rolling Thunder version" to reflect its concert style).​