An instant smash upon release in June 1997, and now among the most streamed British songs of the ’90s (over three billion and counting across all platforms), ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ remains an ageless touchstone for Generation X while consistently gathering new devotees worldwide among the cohorts that followed. Influential, instantly addictive and often covered, it is a bona fide classic that has thoroughly transcended its indie rock roots.

The brainchild of The Verve’s frontman, Richard Ashcroft, elevated by the superb musicianship of the other band members and a string arrangement by the legendary Wil Malone, it was famously built upon an obscure instrumental cover of the Rolling Stone’s ‘The Last Time’ that Ashcroft discovered in a charity shop.

Blessed with an unforgettable, much-parodied video, the song stayed on the UK singles chart for three months and was only kept from the top spot by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans’ ‘I'll Be Missing You’, before being named the Rolling Stone and NME Single of the Year for 1997. In 1998, BBC Radio 1 listeners voted it the third-greatest track of all time, and it has consistently placed well in similar polls ever since.

Only ever available on 7-inch vinyl previously in 2013 as a picture disc to celebrate Virgin Records 40th anniversary, and in 1997 as a very limited pressing for jukebox distribution, UMR/Virgin are delighted to present the song in a full-colour sleeve (using the original BSS CD/12” single artwork) on transparent green-coloured vinyl with the Ashcroft-penned ballad ‘So Sister’ on the flip.