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7:47 · 1,429 words of transcript · watch on YouTube
- Richard Ashcroft was close to scrapping the song until producer Martin Glover put strings over it, which is the moment it became what people know.
▶ 00:00:27
- The band layered nearly 50 tracks of instrumentation, including a sample of a five-note figure from an Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra recording.
▶ 00:00:42
- That orchestral record came out of a 1960s fashion for rearranging pop hits as instrumentals, made by the Rolling Stones' own manager in imitation of George Martin.
▶ 00:01:09
- Decca licensed the sample and the single went out, but publishing for everything the Stones recorded up to 1971 sat with a separate company, whose permission they had not sought.
▶ 00:01:24
- That catalogue belonged to Allen Klein, a financial auditor turned manager feared by labels, whose handling of the Beatles was a large part of why that band ended.
▶ 00:02:14
- Klein refused at first, saying he did not believe in sampling, then granted an exception once it was clear the band had no alternative.
▶ 00:02:48
- The band say the deal was an even split, and when the single took off Klein claimed they had used more of the sample than agreed and sued for plagiarism.
▶ 00:03:05
- They settled rather than fight, and the outcome was total: all royalties to Klein's company and songwriting credit to Jagger and Richards, whose names then appeared on the Grammy ballot.
▶ 00:03:22
- Losing control of the song meant losing the right to refuse its use, so after the band turned Nike down the company simply bought the licence from Klein.
▶ 00:03:39
- The man who actually arranged the orchestral version, David Whitaker, was never listed as a composer and received nothing through the entire dispute.
▶ 00:04:14