10 Greatest MTV Unplugged Rock Performances
3. Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton had been one of the biggest musical artists in the world for some 25 years by the time he made his appearance on Unplugged in 1992, having come through in the exciting music revolution of the late-'60s alongside contemporaries such as The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix.
Clapton's career had roller-coasted through the preceding decades as he famously lived and played fast, but by the early-'90s he was somewhat of an elder statesman whose heavily blues-influenced brand of rock was largely considered middle of the road. Still, the Brit's Unplugged appearance firmly put him back on the map, and the subsequent LP became the fastest selling live album of all time, with sales in excess of 26 million.
The former Cream man's Grammy-winning London performance is best known for the reinterpretation of Layla, one of the best rock songs of all time written about his love for the then-wife of Beatle George Harrison, as well as the heart-warming Tears In Heaven, written about the tragic death of his toddler son.