The title Jack Unplugged refers to Jack having become depressed and "unplugged" from the world around him, while also referring to an audio jack becoming unplugged from a music source. The film's soundtrack also makes use of many acoustic (or "unplugged") songs.
Jack's last name, Holt, is a loose reference to English composer Gustav Holst, best known for his orchestral suite The Planets. Jack also shares his name with Jack Holt, an American motion picture actor in both silent and sound movies, particularly Westerns.
The most-used musical artists used in the film's soundtrack are Yes, followed by ELO, George Michael, Fleetwood Mac, and Asia.
During filming, the aux port on the phone used by Jack occasionally became so filled with fuzz from the jacket's pockets that the headphones audio jack couldn't fully plug in.
All of the scenes filmed for the movie were done without playing music in the environment, except for the scene where Jack goes to the dining hall listening to "Changes", which was played over a small wireless speaker.