Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve. Sampled strings from a Stones song. Ended up getting sued and giving up all royalties to that song.
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 & written by
David Whitaker, inspired by the 1965
Rolling Stones' song of the same title.
[8][9]
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.
[10][11] Despite its original lyrics and string intro (by Wil Malone & Ashcroft), the music of "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was sampled from the Oldham track, which led to a lawsuit with
ABKCO Records, Klein's holding company, and eventually settled out of court. The Verve relinquished all of their royalties to Klein, owner of ABKCO Records, whilst songwriting credits were changed to
Jagger/Richards/Ashcroft.
[12]
The Verve bassist
Simon Jones said, "We were told it was going to be a 50/50 split, and then they saw how well the record was doing. They rung up and said we want 100 percent or take it out of the shops, you don't have much choice."
[13] After losing the composer credits to the song, Ashcroft commented, "This is the best song Jagger and Richards have written in 20 years",[14] noting it was their biggest UK hit since "Brown Sugar".[13]
