Bitter Sweet Symphony — The Verve (1997)

"Bitter Sweet Symphony" is the only song on this list to spark a landmark legal battle, with a dispute over a 6-second sample from the Rolling Stones' "The Last Time" that awarded 100% of royalties to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards for 23 years. The Verve regained the rights in 2019, and the track reached #2 in the UK, selling 1.5 million copies. It is consistently ranked among the greatest songs of the 1990s, and its orchestral arrangement is more complex than "What Is Love"'s looped synth riff.