Released on June 16, 1997.
Written by Richard Ashcroft/ Mick Jagger/Keith Richards.
Produced by Martin "Youth" Glover and The Verve.
Lead single on The Verve's third studio album Urban Hymns (1997).
Peaked at #2 on the UK Official Charts // #12 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Quote:
Although the song's lyrics were written by Verve vocalist Richard Ashcroft, its distinctive passage for strings was sampled from the 1965 Andrew Oldham Orchestra symphonic recording of "The Last Time", arranged & written by David Whitaker, inspired by the 1965 Rolling Stones' song of the same title.
Originally, The Verve had negotiated a licence to use a five-note sample from the Oldham recording, but former Stones manager Allen Klein (who owned the copyrights to the band’s pre-1970 songs) claimed that The Verve broke the agreement and used a larger portion. Despite its original lyrics and string intro (by Wil Malone & Ashcroft), the music of "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was sampled from the Oldham track, which led to a lawsuit with ABKCO Records, Klein's holding company, and eventually settled out of court. The Verve relinquished all of their royalties to Klein, owner of ABKCO Records, whilst songwriting credits were changed to Jagger/Richards/Ashcroft.
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After losing the composer credits to the song, Ashcroft commented, "This is the best song Jagger and Richards have written in 20 years", noting it was their biggest UK hit since "Brown Sugar".