Bittersweet Victory For Ashcroft
• Over two decades after the Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” was released, Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft has regained his songwriter royalties and rights from the 1997 hit, as the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have removed their writing credits. The news was first reported by the BBC and New Musical Express.
According to Variety,“Bittersweet Symphony” samples a segment of an orchestral version of the 1965 Jagger-Richards composition “The Last Time” from an album by the Stones’ former manager and producer Andrew Loog Oldham. The sample, which is a prominent element in the song, was not fully cleared, and after a legal battle with ABKCO, the song’s publisher, Ashcroft was forced to sign away his rights and royalties to “Bittersweet Symphony.”
However, in a statement released last week, Ashcroft announced that he has regained his royalties. “It gives me great pleasure to announce as of last month Mick Jagger and Keith Richards agreed to give me their share of the song ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony,'” the statement reads. “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.” The statement continued, “I would like to thank the main players in this, my management Steve Kutner and John Kennedy, the Stones manager Joyce Smyth and [ABKCO CEO] Jody Klein (for actually taking the call); lastly a huge unreserved heartfelt thanks and respect to Mick and Keith. Music is power.”
A source clarified to Variety that Jagger and Richards assigned their songwriter royalties to Ashcroft, but not control or publishing rights to the song.
