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 running a five-part deep-dive on every episode of MTV Unplugged that's currently streaming on the station's parent streaming network Paramount+! (Part 1 and 2 can be read here and here.)

With rock music undergoing a transformation after the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994, MTV Unplugged continued to settle into institutional status. The show held court primarily in New York City, taping in Sony Music's state-of-the-art midtown studio (also the location of public television favorite Sessions At West 54th) and also spending a spell at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, offering a slightly bigger venue for audiences to enjoy. But this period was still marked by unexpected appearances and moments, along with some of the show's most awarded performances. There was still life in the formula yet!

SEASON 5

Stone Temple Pilots (rec. at Sony Music Studios, New York, NY - 11/17/1993; aired 2/2/1994)

Recorded a day before Nirvana's set but held from air for a few months, STP's Unplugged episode was another testament to the power of stripped-back alt-rock performance, with Scott Weiland, Robert and Dean DeLeo and Eric Kretz offering favorites from debut album Core (1992), a cover of David Bowie's "Andy Warhol" and an early version of "Big Empty," the lead single from their next release, 1994's Purple.

Availability: The "Andy Warhol" cover and "Crackerman" backed overseas CD singles of "Vasoline" in 1994. The whole set was later released as part of a deluxe box set edition of Core in 2017.

Tony Bennett (rec. at Sony Music Studios, New York, NY - 4/12/1994; aired 6/1/1994)

Eric Clapton's Unplugged looked like a sure thing next to this: Tony Bennett, recently on a career upswing after a string of commercial failures and drug addiction, made an unlikely pitch to the younger generation by doing what he did best: lively takes on The Great American Songbook, backed by the Ralph Sharon Trio (and featuring guest turns by Elvis Costello on "They Can't Take That Away from Me" and k.d. lang on "Moonglow"). After spirited appearances on late night television and the MTV Video Music Awards, the one-of-a-kind singer, closing in on his 70th birthday - he'd reach nearly a century! - helped certify his status as a living legend on a program almost no one saw coming.

Availability: Released by Bennett's longtime home base Columbia Records, this MTV Unplugged album was a steady seller, not only certified platinum by the RIAA but the second LP of tracks from the program to take home a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The episode was also released on video.

Lenny Kravitz (rec. at Sony Music Studios, New York, NY - 4/14/1994; aired 7/12/1994) mislabeled under Season 1

It was always a treat when acts like Kravitz would step up to the mic for Unplugged. Known for guitar antics that led to easy comparisons to Hendrix or Prince, this set - featuring favorites like recent radio hit "Are You Gonna Go My Way," "Always on the Run" and "Let Love Rule" - put the focus on Lenny's solid songcraft.

Availability: Never released in full, but the opening take of "Are You Gonna Go My Way" was the most recent addition to Warner Bros.' compilation album The Unplugged Collection Volume One, released in 1994.

Bob Dylan (rec. at Sony Music Studios, New York, NY - 11/17-18/1994; aired 12/14/1994)

Another hero of a pre-MTV generation who found his luck changed after appearing on Unplugged, Bob Dylan's appearance on the show came after two straight albums of traditional folk and blues songs (Good As I Been to You (1992) and World Gone Wrong (1993)) performed essentially unplugged: just Dylan, an acoustic guitar and a harmonica. Dylan apparently wanted his performance to feature the same kind of formula and repertoire, but was convinced by execs to bring a full acoustic band (comprised of his touring ensemble and rock producer Brendan O'Brien on Hammond organ) into a set that focused on his most notable originals, including "The Times They Are A-Changin'," "Like a Rolling Stone," "All Along the Watchtower" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." Clad in a black and white polka dot shirt and dark sunglasses that recalled his '60s days, the episode primed the public for a period of Dylan rediscovery ahead of 1997's Time Out of Mind, kicking off a late period renaissance for the icon.

Availability: Dylan's Unplugged was released on CD in 1995 and became his bestselling album in years - his first to go gold since Dylan and The Dead in 1989. In 2007, it was reissued as a CD/DVD, boasting a new 5.1 surround mix and an extra performance of "Love Minus Zero/No Limit." (Several tracks from the performance remain unreleased.)

SEASON 6

Sheryl Crow (rec. at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY - 2/15/1995; aired 3/7/1995)

Coming off the success of 1994's Tuesday Night Music Club, which won the singer a Grammy for Best New Artist (along with a Record of the Year nod for the hit "All I Wanna Do"), Sheryl Crow's MTV Unplugged set was a sort of Tuesday night coffeehouse featuring eight of the album's 11 tracks, plus covers of "I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday" (popularized by Fats Domino) and Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Mak'er."

Availability: This middle period of MTV Unplugged was represented by a trio of best-of compilations issued annually from 2002 to 2004, sprinkling in familiar works from some of the famed episodic albums (mostly by Warner or Universal artists) with materiral that never got released anywhere else. Interestingly, performances of Crow's made all three volumes: "Strong Enough," "Run Baby Run" and "Leaving Las Vegas."

Melissa Etheridge (rec. at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY - 2/15/1995; aired 3/21/1995)

An acoustic setting did nothing to sap Melissa Etheridge's fiery power in the wake of her mainstream breakthrough with 1993's Yes I Am and the hits "Come to My Window," "I'm the Only One" and "If I Wanted To." The set also featured "All the Way to Heaven," a song that would make her next album Your Little Secret later that year, plus covers of Rod Stewart's "Maggie May" and - making a genuine Unplugged appearance for the first time - Bruce Springsteen duetting with her on a version of his "Thunder Road."

Availability: A deluxe edition of Etheridge's Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled (2005) included a bonus DVD of rare performances that included her version of "Ain't It Heavy" from the Unplugged broadcast.

Live (rec. at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY - 2/15/1995; aired 4/19/1995)

Already the darlings of MTV's alternative block 120 Minutes for radio staples "Lightning Crashes" and "I Alone," Live brought those songs - and others off their albums Mental Jewelry (1991) and Throwing Copper (1994) - for a spirited acoustic performance.

Availability: "Lightning Crashes" and "I Alone" appeared on The Very Best of MTV Unplugged and The Very Best of MTV Unplugged 3, while their rendition of "Supernatural" - a cover of a song by quadriplegic singer/songwriter Vic Chesnutt - appeared on an album meant to raise money for him: 1996's Sweet Relief II: The Gravity of the Situation.

The Cranberries (rec. at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY - 2/14/1995; aired 4/19/1995)

Coming at about the halfway point between the Irish group's bestseller No Need to Argue (1994) and follow-up To the Faithful Departed (1996), The Cranberries' string-laden set featured the hits fans knew ("Zombie," "Linger") and a few songs that they would discover soon ("Free to Decide," "I'm Still Remembering").

Availability: The 1996 single "When You're Gone" included the Unplugged version of "Zombie" as a B-side; it also appeared on 2003's The Very Best of MTV Unplugged 2, while "Linger" made it to the first volume issued the year before. Most coveted by fans, though, was "Yesterday's Gone," a song from the set that never made a Cranberries album. The live performance was preserved as a bonus feature on the DVD Beneath the Skin - Live in Paris, and later made its CD debut as a bonus track on a deluxe edition of No Need to Argue.

KISS (rec. at Sony Music Studios, New York, NY - 8/8/1995; aired 10/31/1995)

KISS' most shocking moment on MTV was the reveal of their faces without make-up to promote 1983's Lick It Up. Their second most shocking was their Unplugged set: driven mostly by deep cuts and backed partly by an orchestra (a gambit further explored on 2003's Alive IV). But what took this episode into the history books was its final third, when Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons were joined by original bandmates Ace Frehley and Peter Criss for the first time since 1980, performing favorites like "Rock and Roll All Nite" and "Beth." Amazingly, the ice between the long-estranged members thawed long enough for the classic line-up - back in their make-up and costumes - to record and tour from 1996 to 2001.

Availability: KISS rarely miss a chance to release something treasured by fans. KISS Unplugged hit stores in 1996, both as a CD and video release with a making-of featurette. Three tracks from the album, plus the Japanese-only bonus cut "Got to Choose," appeared on KISS: The Box Set in 2001. The 2007 video box set KISSology Vol. 3 (1992-2000) offered an even longer cut of the footage with five unaired tracks.