Following the vastness of his world tour recently captured on Tripping the Live Fantastic, McCartney took the opportunity to strip back his songs and appear on the acoustic-only show MTV Unplugged, which had only been on air for over a year at that point.

to pick up the sound (this can be seen on the album cover, where a large rectangular microphone is pictured in front of McCartney's acoustic guitar).

Several tracks performed in the show were not included on the album, as follows: "Mean Woman Blues", "Midnight Special", "Matchbox", "The Fool" and "Things We Said Today".

[6] "Things We Said Today" and "Midnight Special" would see official release two years later in 1993 as B-sides to the "Biker Like an Icon" single.

Initially released in a limited edition, individually numbered run in 1991, Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)—with artwork that recalls Снова в СССР's—was reissued in a more permanent fashion in the late 1990s.