Eric Clapton Unplugged

UNPLUGGED won 1993 Grammy Awards for Album of The Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. It's interesting to hear Eric Clapton in an acoustic setting, because he made his mark as one of the early proponents of high-decibel rock. Stripping down the music of an artist as technically proficient and historically based as Eric Clapton was a stroke of genius. Hence, it's no surprise that the result, UNPLUGGED, is billiant as well.

Certified at 10 million units by the RIAA. (2/01)

Clapton caught the "unplugged" trend just at the right time, when the public was hungry to hear how well rock stars and their material can hold up when stripped of elaborate production values. Clapton himself seemed baffled by the phenomenon, especially when picking up the armload of Grammys Unplugged earned him, including Record and Song of the Year for "Tears in Heaven," the heart-rending elegy to his young son, Conor. That song and a reworked version of "Layla" got most of the attention, but the rest of the album has fine versions of acoustic blues numbers such as "Malted Milk," "Rollin' & Tumblin', and "Before You Accuse Me" that make it worth investigating further. --Daniel Durchholz