Why The Verve Didn’t Make a Cent off Their One-Hit Wonder “Bittersweet Symphony” Until 2019

If you are a passionate musician, being a one-hit wonder is surely hard enough. Though, what makes it harder is when your single hit doesn’t gross you any revenue. Well, that is exactly what happened with The Verve and their smash hit, “Bittersweet Symphony”. Released in 1997, “Bittersweet Symphony” garnered The Verve notoriety, international acclaim, and a Top 15 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

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The single peaked at no. 12 on the chart and, consequently, was an enormous hit of the late 90s. That being said, one might believe The Verve stood to earn a lot of cashola from the song. They could have. That is, until The Rolling Stones sued the group for an unlawful sample of their iconic track “The Last Time”.

Specifically, The Rolling Stones did let The Verve use a portion of the orchestra segment of the single. However, after The Verve used more than what was allocated to them, The Rolling Stones did what they had to do. So, they took them to court and won the royalties to The Verve’s biggest all-time hit “Bittersweet Symphony”. As a result, The Verve did not make a single cent from the smash hit. However, that changed in 2019 when The Rolling Stones kindly forfeited the royalties back over to The Verve.

Thanks to The Rolling Stones, The Verve Finally Got Their Bag

After 22 years of not making any money off of “Bittersweet Symphony”, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, and the rest of The Rolling Stones team agreed to give the royalties back to Richard Ashcroft and The Verve. Given that The Verve only had one big hit, this was an enormous deal for the group, as this meant all the members now had a new revenue source.

Concerning the matter, Ashcroft announced the news at the Ivor Novello Awards in 2019. While on stage, he stated, “As of last month, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards signed over all their publishing for Bitter Sweet Symphony, which was a truly kind and magnanimous thing for them to do,” per the BBC.

“I never had a personal beef with The Stones,” he continued. “They always have been the greatest rock and roll band in the world.”

He also noted that Jagger and Richards gave him credit for creating such a masterful song. As much as this surely stung for Ashcroft and The Verve, at least they were able to get their song back. Also, kudos to Jagger and Richards for knowing when enough is enough.

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