10 Hit Songs You Had No Idea Used Samples

Thanks to one little sample, the copyright issues behind the Verve's hit single became an enormous legal mess that took over two decades to settle.

You may not have even heard of the Verve, but you've definitely heard Bittersweet Symphony. The song is played everywhere, from car ads to football highlights, and all against the Verve's wishes.

It's a beautifully dense song, made up of over 50 different overlaying tracks. One of these came from the Andrew Oldham Orchestra and their cover of The Last Time, a not-particularly-famous Rolling Stones song.

Naturally, the Verve made sure to acquire the rights to use this sample in their song. However, they did not acquire the rights to the original song that their sample was covering, because... why would they? That's not how sampling works.

According to Rolling Stones manager and all-round awful man Allen Klein, that is apparently very much how sampling works, actually. He somehow successfully sued the Verve for plagiarism, claiming 100% of the song's royalties, complete licensing rights, and songwriting credits for Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Bittersweet Symphony was then sold for use by any and every advertising agent with something to sell, much to the distress of the anti-commercial Verve.

The most egregious part of the whole affair is that The Last Time isn't even a Rolling Stones original. It's a cover of a traditional song made famous by the Staple Singers, who, by the way, received absolutely zero royalties from the Stones.

Yes, like Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, and Led Zeppelin before them, the Rolling Stones weren't afraid to rework songs by black artists, then use legal loopholes to prevent anyone ever doing the same thing to them.

Mercifully, the disputes were finally settled in 2019, with the rights and royalties being handed back to the Verve. Finally, they could watch all the car ads and football highlights they wanted without being cheated out of millions and millions of pounds.