The track was released in 1997 and only now has the group received the proper credit
The Rolling Stones and The Verve are ending a 22-year-long battle this month over who owns the copyright to The Verve's classic hit "Bitter Sweet Symphony."
Originally released in 1997, the song sampled "The Last Time," a 1965 song by the Rolling Stones. This similarity formed the basis of a lawsuit filed by the British band's agent, Allen Klein , against The Verve's frontman, Richard Ashcroft.
Klein won the lawsuit, and since then the Stones have been receiving all the money coming from the track. Many criticized this decision, since the excerpt from "The Last Time" sounds like a copy of "This May Be The Last Time" by The Staple Singers , released in 1956.
Now, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have returned the rights to Ashcroft and The Verve. The news was announced during a speech by the frontman at the Ivor Novello Awards : “This remarkable and vivid turnaround was only possible thanks to a kind and magnanimous gesture [from the two], who said they were happy to have their names removed from the credits, and all the copyrights now belong to me.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKC5cdGBY04
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