Mike Batt - A songwriter's tale - WHY?

Here's a blurb for an album I happened to chance upon yesterday in Sainsburys. It's in the charts and everything.

[b]Mike Batt steps back into his "artist" role with this new release of fresh recordings of his most well-known hits including `Bright Eyes', `Soldier's Song', `A Winter's Tale' and "The Closest Thing To Crazy".

`A Songwriters Tale' comprises 16 tracks representing some of the key songs of his life as a performer and writer. Batt sold hundreds of thousands of albums around the world in the 70s, 80s and 90s as a signed artist to Epic, for which label he made 6 solo albums. In addition to songs from his own albums `A Songwriter's Tale' also contains new recordings of songs written and produced by him for other artists including Art Garfunkel, The Hollies, Cliff Richard, David Essex and, most recently, Katie Melua.

Mike Batt said, "The new album has given me the chance to reinterpret some of my more well-known material. It's like a retrospective exhibition for a painter, but doing the paintings over again.[b]

Wow, I thought, what a talented man. And no Wombles songs on there at all, not even "The Orinocco Kid" (whose resemblance to that new Last Shadow Puppets song should send Mr Batt running to the lawyers). But more importantly, why did he feel the need to inflict these versions of his most famous songs on the world?

Who would buy this album? Why would anyone buy this album? Please explain.