Pick a Day

The Verve Release Hit Single, But Success Is Bittersweet

In the UK, The Verve release "Bitter Sweet Symphony," which lives up to it's title: the song is a huge hit, but Mick Jagger and Keith Richards end up getting credits and royalties.

Released months ahead their third album Urban Hymns, the song is built around a six-second string sample taken from a 1966 orchestral version of the Rolling Stones song "The Last Time" performed by The Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra. The song takes off, going to #2 in the UK on June 28. It's a breakthrough hit for The Verse, whose highest previous placing was #24 with "History," a track from their previous album. But there's a problem: the band cleared the sample with Decca Records, which owned the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra recording, but they didn't bother with the publishing rights, which are owned by former Rolling Stones manager Allen Klein's company. When The Verve try to obtain those publishing rights, Klein demands 100% of the publishing royalties, an outrageous request, but one he's in a position to make because without his approval, the song can't be included on the album. Instead of holding up Urban Hymns in a protracted legal battle, the band gives Klein his pound of flesh, signing over the rights. This also means that even though they had no part in writing it, Jagger and Richards earn royalties and are credited as writers on "Bitter Sweet Symphony" along with Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft, who actually wrote the song. It's not a total bust: Urban Hymns climbs to #1 in the UK, where their next single, "The Drugs Don't Work," also hits the top spot. In America, where The Verve are unknown, Nike commissions a commercial using the song, which begins airing in January 1998. The group wants nothing to do with it, but consents because they don't own the publishing rights - Nike could have just re-recorded it with studio musicians. Radio stations jump on it and MTV starts spinning the video, which shows Ashcroft bumping aside anyone who impedes his path as he walks the streets of London. The song isn't released Stateside until March 10, 1998. It debuts at #13 and hangs around the chart for 20 weeks, peaking at #12. The group never has another American hit, and in 1999, they split, with Ashcroft launching a similarly bifurcated solo career: very successful in the UK but hardly heard in America. Ashcroft remains justifiably embittered over losing the publishing rights to the song, but loves the song itself, making it a regular feature at his concerts. In interviews, he is prone to rants about the screwjob and often talks about bringing legal action to get his royalties back, which he finally does in 2019, when he announces that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have signed over all their future publishing royalties to the song. He makes it clear that his dispute was always with Klein, telling the BBC: "I never had a personal beef with the Stones. They've always have been the greatest rock and roll band in the world."

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