10 Rock Songs Ripped Off From Other Songs

10. Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve

By the end of the '90s, we had gotten pretty used to sampling in music. I mean, when you have a record like Paul's Boutique becoming one of the biggest records in music, you know that there is a way to make samples sound original. The Verve may have had the right idea with Bittersweet Symphony...it's just a shame that the higher ups didn't think so.

Although most of the song is credited to Richard Ashcroft, the lawyers came calling when they found out where the orchestral backing track came from. Once it reached the top of the charts, the managers behind the Rolling Stones were claiming that they had "stolen" the strings from the Stones' orchestral arrangement of their song The Last Time. Yes, you heard that right. They wanted to sue them based on a cover version of a rock and roll song.

Apparently these lawyers had silver tongues though, with most of the publishing rights going to the Stone's estate. This may have been what shook the Verve into one hit wonderdom stateside, with millions of people blasting the song everywhere they went. Even with the Verve becoming one of the defining acts of the Britpop era, it has to sting that you have to pay your idols whenever you play your biggest hit.