How 'The Last Time' Became the First Jagger/Richards UK #1 and Then Haunted The Verve

The Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time” marked a turning point in 1965 — it was the first Jagger/Richards original to hit number one in the UK, proving the band could write their own hits after leaning heavily on American blues covers. The song’s signature guitar riff was actually borrowed from a 1950s gospel-tinged single by The Staple Singers, a nod Jagger and Richards later acknowledged. But decades later, that same track became the center of one of music’s most notorious sampling disputes.

In 1997, The Verve used a five-note orchestral phrase from the David Whitaker–arranged string version of “The Last Time” on their song “Bittersweet Symphony.” They had licensed the original recording from Decca Records, but ABKCO — which owned the publishing rights to the Stones’ pre-1970 catalog — claimed the sample