The Verve: Did The Rolling Stones Steal Bitter Sweet Symphony From Richard Ashcroft?

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Did the Rolling Stones steal Bitter Sweet Symphony From Richard Ashcroft and The Verve?

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The Verve’s first two album’s were not very commercially successful, but the group’s third record 1997’s Urban Hymns was a massive hit thanks in large part to the single Bittersweet Symphony. With the release of Urban Hymns, The Verve knocked Oasis out of the number 1 spot on the album charts in the UK. And Urban Hymns spent a total of 12 weeks at the number 1 spot on the charts and spent a total of 124 weeks on the charts. The Verve's Urban Hymns would outsell Radiohead, Blur and Oasis who all released albums in 1997.

Released as the lead single from the album, Bitter Sweet Symphony wasn’t just the biggest song of the band’s career, but one of the biggest songs of the decade. It was nominated for a Grammy, while publications including NME and Rolling Stone named the song the single of the year. Considering Bitter Sweet Symphony was such a massive single being a top 5 hit in the UK and a top 20 hit in the US and was licensed heavily by advertisers.it should’ve made The Verve a lot of money, but it didn’t. In fact the song became a nightmare for the band. So you're probably wondering. What happened? Stay tuned to find out.

Bitter Sweet Symphony would find itself as the opening track off the band’s third album. The grandiose nature of the song makes it feel larger than life, thanks in large part to the string arrangement. It maybe shocking to learn that The Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft almost threw the song away, but it was producer Youth, who also happens to be the bassist in the post-punk band Killing Joke who pushed to have the song included on the record. The song’s trademark orchestral arrangement was placed by” Youth who would tell an interviewer
"This was certainly the most successful track I've done. I think Richard had actually cut a version with John Leckie but, by the time I came on board, he didn't want to do the song. I persuaded him to have a go at cutting a version, but at first he wasn't really into it. It was only once we'd put strings on it that he started getting excited. Then, towards the end, Richard wanted to chuck all the album away and start again. What was my reaction? Horror. Sheer horror. All I could say was, I really think you should reconsider.

While the string arrangement gave the song it’s signature sound, it would soon become a legal nightmare for the band. It turned out the orchestral arrangement for Bitter Sweet Symphony was sampled from the Andrew Oldham’s orchestra. Andrew Oldham for his part used to be the Rolling Stones manager. And in reality there was no Andrew Oldham Orchestra it was just a name used for recordings made by Oldham who used a number of session musicians including the members of the Rolling Stones. Back in the 60’s it was common place for orchestra’s to cover famous pop and rock songs and that was true for both the Beatles and Rolling Stones music. The sample the Verve used was actually a cover of the Rolling Stones song “The Last Time” which was penned by members Mick jagger and Keith Richards. While the Verve had permission to sample the Andrew Oldham orchestra’s recording, they didn’t have permission from The Rolling Stones, which the orchestral track was based on.Now it’s important to note that the orchestral arrangement is not on the Rolling Stones version of the song and that’s where things got a little tricky. The copyright to the Rolling Stones song was owned by a company named ABKCO, which was run by a controversial businessman named Allen Klein who was a ruthless negotiator.


Klein's would be involved with both the Beatles and Rolling Stones and while he would save the Beatles from the brink of bankruptcy, his involvement with the group in the late 60’s appeared to be a catalyst for the band breaking up. The Rolling Stones would accuse Klein of withholding royalty payments, stealing publishing from them and accused them of not paying their taxes for half a decade. Klein would end up holding the copyrights to all of the Rolling Stones songs prior to 1971

The announcement of the song returning to Ashcroft was made at the Ivor Novello awards in London on May 23, where Ashcroft was honored for his contribution to British music. Ironically in 2018 Ashcroft would end up supporting the stones on several dates of their tour. That does it for tod

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