Richard Ashcroft of The Verve finally gets the royalties of "Bitter Sweet Symphony & # 39;

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But lead singer Richard Ashcroft will finally receive royalties for the song after a long fight over copyright with the Rolling Stones.

"It's a great pleasure for me to announce that as of last month Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have agreed to give me their share of the song" Bitter Sweet Symphony, "wrote Ashcroft on Twitter Thursday night, the same day where he won an Ivor Novello Award. for his outstanding contribution to British music.

"This remarkable and invigorating turn of events was made possible by a generous and magnanimous gesture from Mick and Keith, who also agreed that they were happy that the writing credit excluded their names and that all royalties drawn from the song are now accepted for me. "

The Rolling Stones publicists have confirmed to CNN that future royalties for the song would return to Ashcroft, rather than to Jagger and Richards, and that the musicians would no longer need a credit for the song. writing for the song.

Released in 1997, "Bitter Sweet Symphony" samples an excerpt from an orchestral recording of the 1965 song "The Last Time" by The Stones, according to Rolling Stone magazine.

The Verve had a license to use the sample, but Stones lawyers have successfully argued that more was used than allowed – and The Verve had to give up all royalties for the hit.

It must have been an expensive loss. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was named song of the year by NME in 1997. In an interview with music journalist Kyle Meredith in 2018, Ashcroft said: "Someone who stole God knows how many dollars I spent it in 1997 and they still have it. "

The song reached No. 2 on the UK official charts, and remained on the charts for 24 weeks.

In his tweet, Ashcroft thanked his management and the heads of the Stones. "Finally, a big thank you and respect without reservation to Mick and Keith," he wrote. "Music is power."

The song has been viewed more than 450 million times on YouTube.

Ashcroft told the British Press Association press agency: "This obviously left a slight bitter taste, and at least I can now sit next to my son and say," Yes, I can not do it. I wrote this. "

"A lot, a lot of dollars were spent under the bridge, but it's not really a matter of dollars, it never was." It was about crediting what you had done The time I spent on this song was amazing. "

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