How the Verve ripped off The Rolling Stones

You probably know and love the song “Bittersweet Symphony” by the Verve. I still find people who don’t know that they pretty much ripped off this song from The Rolling Stones.

Listen to the similarities of “The Last Time,” a 1965 song by the Stones. This was recorded before the Verve got permission to use the riff.

The real bummer is that the Verve had to sign away most of the royalties from this in order to release the song. The publishing rights to this went to Allen Klein, The Rolling Stones’ former manager. The Stones signed a very lopsided contract with Klein early in their career, and had to make huge concessions in order to get out of it. Part of the deal gave Klein the publishing rights to all of the Stones’ songs through 1969. He made far more money than anyone else from this song.

Nike used this in commercials. Klein got royalties from those.

This was the only hit for The Verve, who broke up in 1999.