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 #4 "What Is Love"'s looped synth riff.