BITTERSWEET
NO MORE

Richard Ashcroft will now earn all the future royalties from The Verve's '90s anthem "Bitter Sweet Symphony," following the settlement of a long-running copyright dispute.

Ashcroft wrote the song for The Verve's '97 album Urban Hymns, which has sold over 10m copies worldwide. It opens with a sample of the strings used from the Andrew Oldham Orchestra’s recording of The Rolling Stones song, "The Last Time," which was recorded in '65.

The Verve cleared the use of the sample, but were hit with a lawsuit from Stones publisher ABKCO after the late Allen Klein, who owned the copyright, claimed the band used a longer sample than was agreed. An out of court settlement granted Klein all of the royalties from The Verve track and the songwriting credits were changed to include Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, as well as Ashcroft.

Thursday, when Ashcroft was honored at The Ivors with Outstanding Contribution to British Music for his body of work spanning nearly three decades, he announced that the rights for "Bittersweet Symphony" had been returned to him. It was the result of Ashcroft's management company appealing to Jagger and Richards, who "immediately" agreed to hand over the royalties.

In a statement announcing the news, Ashcroft said: "This remarkable and life-affirming turn of events was made possible by a kind and magnanimous gesture from Mick and Keith, who have also agreed that they are happy for the writing credit to exclude their names and all their royalties derived from the song they will now pass to me."

He thanked his management Steve Kutner and John Kennedy, the Stones manager Joyce Smyth, and ABKCO’s Jody Klein "for actually taking the call," and gave "a huge unreserved heartfelt thanks and respect to Mick and Keith." He concluded: "Music is power.”