{"id":2792,"date":"2012-05-31T14:08:47","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T19:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2792"},"modified":"2012-06-21T15:55:20","modified_gmt":"2012-06-21T20:55:20","slug":"les-mccann-compared-to-what-original-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2792","title":{"rendered":"Les McCann – Compared To What (Original Version)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong>
\nLes McCann<\/strong>
\n <\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download Les McCann – Compared To What (Original Version)<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/del><\/p>\n

Greetings all.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

I should remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show<\/strong> takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio.<\/a><\/strong> If you can’t make it at airtime you can always come by the blog and grab yourself a downloadable MP3 of the show (and more than 100 archived episodes) over the weekend.<\/p>\n

I hope all is well with you and yours.<\/p>\n

The tune I bring you today should be a (very) familiar one, but I\u2019m guessing that for a lot of you, the version will be new.<\/p>\n

Most folks know the most famous take of\u00a0 Gene McDaniels\u2019<\/strong> \u2018Compared To What\u2019 via the 1969 recording by Les McCann<\/strong> and Eddie Harris<\/strong> from the \u2018Swiss Movement\u2019 LP.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s certainly the first place I heard it, followed by the also quite excellent variations laid down by folks like Roberta Flack, Della Reese<\/strong> and the Northern Soul fave by Mr Flood\u2019s Party.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As is always the case, my inquiring mind wanted to know what the first version of the song was, assuming (incorrectly) that it had to have been by Gene McDaniels himself.<\/p>\n

McDaniels got his start as a popular recording artist with \u201cA Hundred Pounds of Clay\u2019, a Top 10 hit in 1961. His chart run, which included tunes like \u2018Tower of Strength\u2019 and \u2018Point of No Return\u2019 (later a hit when covered by Georgie Fame<\/strong> in the UK) ended in 1962 (though he continued to record into the 70s).<\/p>\n

I still have no idea how McDaniels got \u2018Compared to What\u2019 to Les McCann, but it would appear (unless someone can place it earlier) that the song was first recorded (the take you\u2019re hearing today) by McCann on his 1967 LP \u2018Plays the Hits\u2019 on the Limelight label.<\/p>\n

\u2018Compared to What\u2019 is by any measure one of the great, soulful protest songs of the 60s, and McCann really lays into it with gusto, making it the highlight of an otherwise fairly unremarkable album filled with pop covers.<\/p>\n

In fact, I had the record for a few years before I even noticed that it included \u2018Compared to What\u2019!<\/p>\n

Though it\u2019s possible that McDaniels himself recorded his most famous composition at some point, I have yet to track it down.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t believe that this version has ever been reissued.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an inspired bit of soul jazz and yet another piece of a very interesting puzzle.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig it, and I\u2019ll see you later in the week.<\/p>\n

Keep the faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
\n<\/strong>
\nAlso, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Les McCann Listen\/Download Les McCann – Compared To What (Original Version) Greetings all. I should remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t make it at airtime you can always come by the blog and grab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[58,14,19,30,69,13],"tags":[166,165],"class_list":["post-2792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-songs","category-funky16corners","category-jazz","category-lp-tracks","category-original-versions","category-soul-jazz","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul-jazz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-J2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2792"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2894,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions\/2894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}