Compared to What

"Compared to What"
Composition by Les McCann and Eddie Harris
from the album Swiss Movement
Language	English
Released	1969
Recorded	June 21, 1969
Genre	Soul jazz
Label	Atlantic
Songwriter(s)	Gene McDaniels
Producer(s)	Nesuhi Ertegun and Bob Emmer

"Compared to What" is a composition, with lyrics, by Gene McDaniels. It was recorded by Roberta Flack in 1969, but became better known following a performance by Les McCann (piano and vocals) and Eddie Harris (tenor saxophone) at the 1969 Montreux Jazz Festival, which appeared as the opening track on their album Swiss Movement. The album was certified Gold in sales in the United States. The song has been covered by more than 270 artists, including Ray Charles.

"Compared to What" was copyrighted in 1966. The lyrics contain a "topical rant" against the Vietnam War and the President of the United States, and include the lines: "The president, he's got his war / Folks don't know just what it's for / Nobody gives us rhyme or reason / Have one doubt, they call it treason". In 1976 the popular American music critic B. Lee Cooper suggested that the song "of social criticism attacked a variety of social practices as being based on hypocritically 'unreal values'" and contrasted "the social myth of equality and the economic reality of poverty in the stratified American society."

The first recording appears to have been by Les McCann for his 1966 album Les McCann Plays the Hits.

Flack recorded the song for her 1969 debut album First Take and "Compared to What" was her first single. Flack's manager that year was McCann. A contemporary reviewer suggested that her singing was "in a fiery rhythmic way reminiscent of the throbbing motion heard during congregational singing at Southern Baptist churches." Flack's version was included in the 1997 film Boogie Nights and the 2015 film The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

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Wikipedia