Although the song's lyrics were written by Verve vocalist Richard Ashcroft, its distinctive passage for strings was sampled from the 1965 Andrew Oldham Orchestra symphonic recording of "The Last Time", inspired by the 1965 Rolling Stones' song of the same title.
Originally, The Verve had negotiated a licence to use a five-note sample from the Oldham recording, but former Stones manager Allen Klein (who owned the copyrights to the band’s pre-1970 songs) claimed that The Verve broke the agreement and used a larger portion, which led to a lawsuit. The Verve relinquished all of their royalties to Klein whilst songwriting credits were changed to Jagger/Richards/Ashcroft. Ashcroft commented, "This is the best song Jagger and Richards have written in 20 years"
Fill me in?
Although the song's lyrics were written by Verve vocalist Richard Ashcroft, its distinctive passage for strings was sampled from the 1965 Andrew Oldham Orchestra symphonic recording of "The Last Time", inspired by the 1965 Rolling Stones' song of the same title.
Originally, The Verve had negotiated a licence to use a five-note sample from the Oldham recording, but former Stones manager Allen Klein (who owned the copyrights to the band’s pre-1970 songs) claimed that The Verve broke the agreement and used a larger portion, which led to a lawsuit. The Verve relinquished all of their royalties to Klein whilst songwriting credits were changed to Jagger/Richards/Ashcroft. Ashcroft commented, "This is the best song Jagger and Richards have written in 20 years"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Sweet_Symphony#Song_credits
Wow. I did not know that. It is to bad the screwed it is a decent song.