Song · Les McCann & Eddie Harris
“Compared to What” by Les McCann & Eddie Harris
“Compared to What” by Les McCann & Eddie Harris appears on 5 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 2001 and 2026. Its best result is #297 on The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs You Discovered on The Colorado Sound. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,063 indie & aaa song of all time.
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Les McCann and Eddie Harris played "Compared to What" at the Montreux Jazz Festival in June 1969, McCann on piano and vocals, Harris on tenor sax, and it opened their 1969 album Swiss Movement, an Atlantic release that went gold in the US. It wasn't the first recording of the song, but that Montreux performance is what made it famous.
Gene McDaniels wrote it, and it was copyrighted in 1966: a protest song that swings its fists in every direction, taking on the Vietnam War and President Lyndon B. Johnson and raising abortion years before it became a federal right in 1973. Set to soul jazz this loose and this hot, the anger goes down like a party.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 331 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2009 | 543 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009) | 885 |
| 2020 | 960 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2025 | 373 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs | 800 |
| 2026 | 297 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs You Discovered on The Colorado Sound | 1055 |
Also listed as: Compared To What.
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