Not sure I agree about the cash grab angle Brian...probably true for some, but that brush is too large IMO

There was a whole movement back in the 90s where artists released acoustin versions of their stuff

To my knowledge, a Scottish duo, Everything But The Girl, did it first and a number of artists followed. I think the cash grab probably had something to do with it, but the idea was to produce a fresh version of the songs...

EBGT had just come from their monster worldwide hit "Driving" and had many eyes and ears tuned in on them. The acoustic version of Driving is on this playlist as are acoustic covers of a number of songs

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lht-lM3MxLn4yNoJAVyXNQlqN4MTVa960


Here's the original Driving
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsRnVtIeLyg&ab_channel=EverythingButTheGirl


and their live version on David Letterman...which was my intro to them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mQO3BMTYog&ab_channel=EverythingButTheGirl


AND, to bring things back to the tread...here's Clapton and an acoustic version of Layla
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKwQlm-wldA&ab_channel=EricClaptonVEVO

If writing ever becomes work I think I'm going to have to stop