The song was not written by McCann fellow Atlantic composer/singer Eugene McDaniels wrote it years earlier. «Compared to What» featured political criticism of the Vietnam War. The album contained the song “Compared to What”, and both the album and the single were huge Billboard pop chart successes.
In 1969, Atlantic Records released Swiss Movement, a recording of McCann with frequent collaborator, saxophonist Eddie Harris, and guest trumpeter Benny Bailey at that year’s Montreux Jazz Festival. His main career began in the early 1960s when he recorded as a pianist with his trio for Pacific Jazz Records. An early musical success for McCann was his winning of a Navy talent contest for singing this led to an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
