“Bitter Sweet Symphony” is perhaps the most ambitious Britpop hit of the late 90s. It is now absolutely everywhere. It’s lyrically opaque, and it is six minutes long, but that hasn’t stopped it becoming an amazingly popular anthem.

The orchestral arrangement was based on an Andrew Loog Oldham recording of The Rolling Stones’s 1965 hit “The Last Time.” As a result of a series of court cases by hard-nosed and controversial business manager Allen Klein, for almost 22 years The Verve did not receive more than token royalties for their song, with the rest lining the pockets of Oldham, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (even though Jagger and Richards contributed absolutely nothing to the song). At least Richard Ashcroft managed to retain his writing credit. Finally on May 23, 2019, Ashcroft announced that Jagger and Richards had agreed to unconditionally relinquish their songwriting credits and publishing rights.

The song also received a fairly popular music video homaging Massive Attack’s “Unfinished Sympathy,” where Ashcroft sings the song while he walks along Hoxton Street in North London, bumping into – and ignoring – everything and everyone along the way.