Songoftheday 3/26/21 - I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down, you know the one that takes you to the places where all the veins meet...

 

 

"Bitter Sweet Symphony" - The Verve

from the album Urban Hymns (1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 8

 

Today's song of the day comes from the British alternative rock band the Verve, who came together in the outskirts of Manchester in the beginning of the 1990s. Their first success came with the single "She's A Superstar", from their debut EP Verve, which was a minor hit on the UK singles chart at #66 in 1992. A year later, the group's first full-length effort, A Storm In Heaven, arrived, which reached the top-40 on the British albums sales chart at #27. A second release, A Northern Soul, came out in 1995, preceded by the single "This Is Music", which was their first British top-40 hit at #35, and it was followed by two more singles that reached that level. Moving their sound from the shoegazing mumble at first to an angrier Britpop in the wake of Oasis, the Verve were gaining momentum, which culminated with their third disc Urban Hymns. With the original foursome of singer Richard Ashcroft, lead guitarist Nick McCabe, drummer Peter Salisbury, and bass player Simon Jones being joined by a second guitarist Simon Tong, the band recovered from an almost breakup to deliver their most heralded work. The lead single and centerpiece of the album was "Bitter Sweet Symphony", written by Ashcroft, was a sardonic look on the world with his rough, snarling vocals giving a perfect picture of the pessimism rampant in the youth of Britain at the time. But what set it apart was that looped violin sample, taken from an instrumental version of the Rolling Stones' hit 'The Last Time" done by the Andrew Oldham Orchestra in 1965. Here's the Orchestra recording where the strings come about two minutes in...

The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" takes that hook, makes it the musical centerpiece that almost overpowers Ashcroft's singing. The music video made an even bigger impact, as it tries to be a one-shot take (it isn't) of Richard walking down Hoxton Street in London, knocking into people along the way with absolutely no expression, even when a woman (whose car he walked over) tries to confront him. It made for a visually powerful clip with very little tricks, with the rest of the Verve joining him in their walk at the end...

"Bitter Sweet Symphony" became the Verve's first and only pop hit in America in April of 1998. The song was a big rock radio hit, reaching both the Alternative (#4) and Mainstream (#22) radio charts. It also crossed over to the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format at #8. Internationally, the single was big, making the top ten in the UK (#2), Spain (#2), Iceland (#2), Ireland (#3), Canada (#5), Finland (#6), Italy (#7), Norway (#9), and Sweden (#10). It also placed in the top-40 in Australia (#11), The Netherlands (#14), Austria (#15), Switzerland (#15), New Zealand (#15), France (#16), Belgium (#18W/#21F), and Germany (#37). The Urban Hymns album, released in the fall of 1997 in the UK and at the start of 1998 in the States, went to #1 for twelve non-consecutive weeks in their home country, while in the U.S. the set crested at #23 on the Billboard 200 sales list, going on to sell over a million copies here. At the Grammy Awards in 1999, "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was nominated for two categories, losing Best Rock Song to Alanis Morissette's "Uninvited", and Best Duo/Group Rock Vocal Performance to Aerosmith's "Pink" (the latter a travesty). 

Here's where it gets weird. When recording the track, the band got clearance for the violin sample from the holder of the Orchestral recording. The problem was, The Rolling Stones' old manager, Allen Klein, held the rights to "The Last Time" as a song, and at first refused to agree to this. After a court battle, Ashcroft was forced to add Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as writers, and give up all the publishing royalties to them. That was a bum deal for Oldham, who had to also sue on his own for his own royalties for the performance. So in essence, the Verve's best-known single by far was their most costly. Eventually, after Klein's death, his son absolved the garnishing, so Ashcroft could finally see some fruits of his labor. 

But perhaps the publicity surrounding the dispute was a case of "any news is good news". Their next single in Britain, "The Drugs Don't Work", did what "Symphony" didn't and make it to #1 (by the way the older song was kept from the top by Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You"). A third single, "Lucky Man", also made the top ten at #7, while in America it was offered as the follow-up to "Symphony", and went to #16 at Alternative Rock radio. Lastly, "Sonnet" popped on to the British list at #74. 

With that big success came big problems, as a tumultuous tour ended in the Verve splitting up at the turn of the millennium. Ashcroft went solo, with his first disc Alone With Everybody topping the British albums chart, and lead single "A Song For The Lovers" making it to #3 on the singles chart. Two more top ten albums followed in the next half-dozen years, nabbing another #3 hit with "Break The Night With Colour" in 2006. He had a total of nine British top-40 hits from the trio of albums. But despite Richard's denials of it happening, the original lineup reunited in 2007 for a fourth and final album, Forth. The first single from the project, "Love Is Noise", went to #4 in Britain, followed by their last chart appearance, "Rather Be", at #56. The album itself came in at #1 in the UK (ending on a high note), while in the States, where none of the singles got traction, still had it climb to #23 on the Billboard 200. 

That reunion didn't last, and Ashcroft again went solo. Since then, he has released two more studio albums that both made the top-5 on the UK albums sales tally, along with a special project called the United Nations Of Sound that reached the top-20. His most recent solo set, Natural Rebel came in at #4 in the UK in 2018.

(9/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's the band performing live on BBC in 1997...

At the Live 8 charity concert spectacular in 2005, Coldplay brought in Ashcroft to perform the song...

Next up is the reunited Verve at Glastonbury in 2008...

and lastly, Ashcroft giving an "unplugged" style performance for radio...

Up tomorrow: Soul brothers pledge their mortality.