(Love) Compared with You

"(Love) Compared with You"
Song

"(Love) Compared With You" is a song by British rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, released as the third and final single from the band's album Love's a Prima Donna in 1976. It was released as a single in America only as a promotional release. "(Love) Compared With You" was written and produced by Harley.

Background

Following the Top 50 success of the previous single "(I Believe) Love's a Prima Donna", plans were made for "(Love) Compared With You" to be released as the third single in the UK. However, EMI Records later decided to cancel the single release at the last minute. Due to this fact, a limited number of copies were put into circulation, and today remain highly collectable. Released as a promotional-only single in America instead, the song was ineligible to make a chart appearance.

Like the album, the song was recorded at Abbey Road Studios between June and September 1976.

In December 2010, it was revealed that Harley was to perform at a fan's home, after the fan had offered to donate $15,000 to charity. Harley had auctioned off a personal mini-concert at the winning bidder's home, as well as a signed guitar and a lavish dinner to raise funds for Britain's Children in Need charity. After the auction in Manchester, the winning fan from Germany won the auction, and Harley went to Germany to play the fan's requested song, which was "(Love) Compared With You".

Release

The single was released via EMI Records on 7" vinyl in America only. As a promotional single, the song was cut down by almost a minute and was placed on both sides of the vinyl; one in stereo and one in mono. It was the only Love's a Prima Donna track to be released as a single in America. The single was not for sale and therefore not eligible to chart. The release featured no artwork and used a generic sleeve instead.

Following the original release on the Love's a Prima Donna album and as a single, the song has also appeared on a number of Cockney Rebel compilations including the CD version of 1987's Greatest Hits, 1998's More Than Somewhat – The Very Best of Steve Harley, the 1999 UK EMI Gold compilation The Cream of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, and the 2006 EMI box-set The Cockney Rebel – A Steve Harley Anthology.

Promotion

The song has been performed live on various occasions and was included on the band's 1977 live album Face to Face. An acoustic live version later appeared on Harley's 1999 album Stripped to the Bare Bones. A small number of unofficial video footage has also appeared on YouTube of Harley performing the song live in recent years.

Track listing

7" Single

1. "(Love) Compared With You (Stereo)" - 3:33
2. "(Love) Compared With You (Mono)" - 3:33

Critical reception

In the Billboard magazine issue of 29 January 1977, a review of the Love's a Prima Donna album was published under the 'Pop' section of the 'Billboard's Recommended LPs' section. The review had highlighted the song, along with the album's title track, as the best cuts.

In the National RockStar of 20 November 1976, a negative review of the album was published under the head title "Prima Donna falls flat on face". The writer Paul Phillips stated "Here Comes The Sun" bears all the hallmarks of the accomplished lyricist desperately attempting to become the acclaimed musician/arranger - mistaking clumsiness for cleverness and arrogance for art. Unfortunately, these faults permeate the entire album. "(Love) Compared With You" and "Carry Me Again" are two tracks which work, not because they are simple songs, but because they are simply presented."

In the EMI Records Weekly News Magazine, issue number 72, the album was reviewed by Rex Anderson, who went through each song, track-by-track, on the album. He stated "(Love) Compared With You is the first real highpoint of the album and possibly one of the best things Steve has written to date. It contrasts with all his other work in that it is romantic and dreamy. It is a love hymn with beautifully gentle acoustic guitar, piano, and strings. The "I'm in love with you" overdubbed fade is a little production masterpiece on its own. The following track, "(I Believe) Love's a Prima Donna" is a brilliant contrast. The guy has been through all the different pangs of adolescent love and comes to the realisation that "love" is a prima donna." Later in the review, Anderson also noted "Tony Rivers deserves some praise for his vocal arrangements, particularly on "(Love) Compared with You" and "Love's a Prima Donna"."

In the Sounds magazine issue of 13 November 1976, writer Geoff Barton reviewed the album under the head title "Dark clouds on the Harley horizon", and stated "After the morass of interrelated mini-songs, there comes the first 'conventional' number of the album, the endearing "Too Much Tenderness". The balladic "(Love) Compared with You" is next, containing the lovely line 'Like a waterfall you tingle me with your love'. This one comes across extremely well, building into an all-encompassing entity and ending with the tear-jerking lines 'I love you - I'm in love with you' echoing away into the disance, ad. inf."

Donald A. Guarisco of AllMusic spoke of the song in a review of Love's a Prima Donna album, stating "Love Is a Prima Donna features two of Harley's finest songs in the title track, a bracing song that features the writer waxing comical about the pitfalls of love over a briskly paced pop tune that fleshes out its pub-piano melody with flamenco guitar and a choir, and "(Love) Compared With You," a delicately orchestrated love ballad that manages to be touching and heartfelt without lapsing into sappy sentimentality."

Guarisco spoke of the song again in an AllMusic review of the 1987 Greatest Hits compilation album. He stated "Another interesting aspect of this collection is that it highlights Harley's oft-underrated skill with ballads: a particular highlight in this area is "(Love) Compared With You," a delicate, subtly orchestrated tune where Harley drops his yen for surrealistic lyrics to communicate in direct and elegantly romantic terms."

George Starostin reviewed the album for his website and spoke of the song, stating "On the downside, '(Love) Compared With You' is hardly a great success - apart from the general tender feel of it, there's little to recommend it alongside Steve's really fine ballads; it actually looks like a reject from the too-wordy "Timeless Flight". Not even the tenderness-itself of the 'I love you, I'm in love with you' coda helps - such things should be left to real "lovemeisters" like Paul McCartney, I guess."

Starostin mentioned the song again in a review of the 1977 live album Face to Face, where he stated "...But reasonable still does not equal forgivable, and there's no good excuse for me having to sit through boring crap like '(Love) Compared With You' when I could be grooving to the cool sounds of 'Loretta's Tale' or 'Judy Teen' instead. Oh well, it's not like it's my first experience of an "untimely" live album."

During 1977, Geoff Barton of Sounds magazine reviewed the Face to Face live album and stated "The involvement builds and builds until, towards the end, everyone sings along in fine football chorus tradition. Highly charged, sincere, spine-tingling stuff. '(Love) Compared with You' follows admirably in the footsteps of 'Best Years', together with the irrisistible line ' Like a waterfall you tingle me with your love', and 'Mr. Soft' is next up, mildly funky/suddenly rocking. 'Sebastian' closes the side and the show - slow, solemnic, a piece de resistance, another highpoint."

Personnel

• Vocals, Guitar, Producer - Steve Harley
• Guitar, Backing Vocals - Jim Cregan
• Guitar - Jo Partridge
• Bass, Backing Vocals - George Ford
• Keyboards - Duncan Mackay
• Drums - Stuart Elliott

Additional personnel

• Percussion - Lindsey Elliott
• Sound Engineer - Tony Clark
• Assistant Sound Engineer - Pat Stapley
• Writer of "(Love) Compared with You" - Steve Harley