One of rock music's most notorious rights battle has finally been resolved after a 22-year dispute.
The Verve's song, Bitter Sweet Symphony, has until last month been in a long drawn-out legal battle since its release after the Wigan band sampled an orchestral version of The Rolling Stone 's song, The Last Time.
Singer-songwriter Richard Ashcroft, speaking to the Press Association (PA), said: "It always left a slight bitter taste obviously. At least I can sit next to my son now and go, 'Yeah, I wrote that'."
Ashcroft had to sign over the rights of the 1997 song to The Rolling Stone's frontman Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, meaning The Verve didn't make a penny from the iconic song.
The dispute centred around a four second sample of an Andrew Loog Oldham orchestral recording of The Last Time, which was used as a loop in the backing track.
Ashcroft's people say permission was obtained for the use of the recording but permission for use of the song itself was overlooked.
By the time the mistake was realised 'a huge number of copies' of The Verve album Urban Hymns had been produced and the record company was reluctant to scrap them.
Confident they could do a deal with the publishers, they released the album. But former Rolling Stones manager Allen Klein filed a lawsuit that was settled out of court.
It forced Ashcroft to relinquish all rights and royalties to Jagger and Richards, who even received writing credits.
Ashcroft's management made a direct appeal to the pair earlier this year, who 'immediately, unhesitatingly and unconditionally agreed to this request'.
Ashcroft described their response as a 'magnanimous gesture'.
He said: "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.
"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."
He announced the news after picking up an award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music at the Ivor Novello Awards on Thursday evening.
He addressed an applauding audience as he received his award, saying: "Thank you so much Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, for acknowledging me as the writer of a f****** masterpiece - it'll live forever."
He added later to the Press Association: "Many, many dollars have gone under the bridge. But it's not really about the dollars, it never really was. It was about being credited for what you'd done. The amount of time I spent on that tune was incredible."
Bitter Sweet Symphony achieved global success; reaching No.2 in the UK Singles chart and a nomination for a Grammy award. The sample from The Last Time was recorded in 1965 by the Andrew Oldham Orchestra.
Nodding to other copyright disputes within the music industry, he said: "It also goes against the tide. At the moment, there's a lot of lawyers chasing around songs and melodies.
"'Does that sound like that? Right, well let's sue him'. It's quite nice to say, 'Hang on, I had nothing to do with that. Those are his lyrics, that's his melody'."
