Bittersweet Symphony was a little different because it was a straight sample, they looped a recording of a Stones song. This Primary Wave company is buying up publishing rights and because of some IMO bad court decisions can claim to own the melodies themselves, not just the recordings. The problem with that is every melody ever sung sounds like some other melody, somewhere.
Thanks for the Wikipedia rabbit hole you sent me down.
I'm emerging with a fact check: the strings in Bittersweet Symphony were in point of fact a heavily reworked sample of a hook contained in an obscure 1960's symphonic version of "The Last Time". The hook and its melody does not appear anywhere in the Stones' original version.
Everyone eventually agreed The Verve got shafted and Jagger/Richards in the end showed magnanimity and moved to grant The Verve rights to the song.
