Ten ridiculously superb MTV Unplugged albums

Third and fourth on the top ten unplugged list

No. 4 Mariah Carey: MTV Unplugged - 7m

Mariah Carey recorded her MTV Unplugged show in New York in March 1992. It was intended to promote her second album Emotions and to fill a gap in touring and playing live. The TV show went down well and it was decided in June to release an EP. So does that count here as an album? Well, it had seven songs on it, and two of those were released separately as singles. I reckon that all makes it fine to include on this top ten ranking list. 

During the show and on the EP Carey showed her true talent. She switched a little from her pop style to a bit more RnB and Gospel, perhaps more suited to the changes in the way the songs had been arranged. It proved very successful with the EP going on to sell 7m copies. The whole unplugged experience seemed to help take Carey up a level in her career.

No. 3 - Eagles: Hell Freezes Over - 10.9m

This Eagles album isn’t always recognized as coming from the MTV Unplugged series. Perhaps that's because of all the background to the record. The album name of course relates to Don Henley’s definition of when the Eagles might get back together again after their acrimonious break up in 1980.  Hell Freezes Over was their reunion after all those years. 

They got back together for two nights in California in April 1994 to record an MTV special show with the Unplugged production team. The recording was released as an album in November of that year. At first, you'd think the unplugged would suit the Eagles songs well, but then you recall the guitar solo on Hotel California and wonder. But worry not, it’s an exquisite acoustic version of the classic song. The whole album does work extremely well and helped make this the third best-seller in the Unplugged series at almost 11m sales. 

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