Bittersweet

When Richard Ashcroft wrote the Verve's Bitter Sweet Symphony in 1997 he knew he was skating on thin ice; using an uncleared string loop sampled from Andrew Loog Oldham's instrumental version of the Rolling Stones' The Last Time, Ashcroft ended up ceding all royalties from the song to Mick Jagger & Keith Richards thanks to a writ served on him by the Stones' former manager Allen Klein (Klein's company AABKVO Music owned the publishing rights). Ashcroft effectively waived goodbye to an estimated $5M. Ouch.

But unlike the George Harrison's My Sweet Lord/He's So Fine saga, this chapter of Rock & Roll Plagiarism has a happy ending. In 2019 Ashcroft's management reached out to Jody Klein at ABKCO (his father had died in 2009) and appealed to his better nature to right this injustice. Klein in turn contacted Mick 'n' Keef who magnanimously relinquished their song writing credits with immediate effect. Relations had warmed somewhat the previous year when the Stones had asked Ashcroft open for them on their latest world jaunt.  Ashcroft then finally started to see the royalties for what is considered by many to be one of the defining songs of the late 20th. century.

The Andrew Oldham Orchestra - The Last Time (From The Rolling Stones Songbook) (1966)  

Interestingly, almost 50 years later, Andrew Oldham revisited the scene of the crime releasing The Rolling Stones Songbook and Friends Volume 2 and only bloody covered Ashcroft's tour de force. Bittersweet, indeed.

The Andrew Oldham Orchestra - Bitter Sweet Symphony (2014)

The Players:

Allen Klein (1931-2009)

Mick Jagger (b.1943)

Keith Richards (b.1943)

Andrew Loog Oldham (b.1944)

Jody Klein (b.1963)

Richard Ashcroft (b.1971)