10 Songs That Led To Massive Lawsuits

One of The Verve's biggest hits, Bitter Sweet Symphony is an era-defining song, bringing back memories of Britpop and the 90s. It's hard to define what the song is specifically trying to say but it gets across a general feeling of dissatisfaction with modern life. It rallies against capitalist society, featuring lines like 'you're a slave to money then you die'. With that in mind, it's cruelly poetic that The Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft was denied the profits of his most enduring anthem. A dispute over the use of a Rolling Stones sample resulted in a court case and Stones former manager Allen Klein was awarded all the royalties of the song.

The opening strings of Bitter Sweet Symphony sample the 1965 Andrew Oldham Orchestra recording of the Rolling Stones' song The Last Time, which was arranged and written by David Whitaker. The Verve negotiated with the recording's copyright holders Decca Records to use a six-note sample. However, they didn't receive permission from Klein who owned all the rights to pre-1970 Stones songs.

When Klein won the court case that followed, Ashcroft suffered the indignity of having his songwriting credit taken away, with that being changed to Jagger/Richards.

Cut to 2019, 22 years after Klein's court win. Ashcroft was collecting the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. Speaking publically, he decided to announce that the dispute was over.

He negotiated with Klein's son, Jody, and the Rolling Stones' manager Joyce Smith, and came to an agreement. Jagger and Richards signed over their publishing for Bitter Sweet Symphony and one of the great injustices of music copyright was corrected.