Throwback Thursday ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ by The Verve (1997)

"Bitter Sweet Symphony" was the first single off of The Verve's third (and most successful) studio album, Urban Hymns. 

According to Wikipedia, who gets credit for the song is very complicated, "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", arranged and written by David Whitaker, inspired by the 1965 Rolling Stones' song of the same title.^[8][9] The Rolling Stones' song was itself strongly inspired by "This May Be The Last Time" from the Staple Singers.^[10]" 

Did that make any sense to you? Me either. But eventually, The Verve had to give up all of their royalties to the owner of ABKCO Records, and songwriting credits were changed to  Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Richard Ashcroft.

The music video was everywhere in 1997 and showed lead singer, Richard Ashcroft, walking down a street in London. He's not just walking though, he can't be bothered to stop or change direction for anybody or anything.

The song garnered a lot of critical praise and was nominated for many awards abroad and here in the US. According to Wikipedia, "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was nominated for Best British Single, and at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, the song was nominated for Video of the Year, Best Group Video, and Best Alternative Video.^[5][6] In 1999, the song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song.^[7]"

The song went to #12 on Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the Alternative Songs chart!

The Verve disbanded in 1999 due to health issues, internal conflicts, and drug abuse. They reunited in 2007, but disbanded again in 2008 for all the same reasons.

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