Pick a Day

Featured Timeline : The Verve

January 11, 1998 Nike debuts its "I Can" commercial, introducing the British band The Verve to a wide American audience with the song "Bitter Sweet Symphony." The song becomes the band's only hit in the States, which is bittersweet because they had to sign away royalties to the song to get the publishing rights to the string sample.

June 16, 1997 In the UK, The Verve release "Bitter Sweet Symphony," which lives up to it's title: the song is a huge hit, but Mick Jagger and Keith Richards end up getting credits and royalties.More

April 28, 1999 Members of The Verve release a statement announcing their second breakup (their first was in 1995). The band reunites in 2007, but that only lasts two years.

September 29, 1997 The Verve, which broke up just two years earlier, release their breakthrough album Urban Hymns. The album started as a solo project for frontman Richard Ashcroft, but ended up pulling the band back together.

September 11, 1971 Richard Ashcroft (lead singer for The Verve) is born in Billinge Higher End, Wigan, England.

August 25, 2008 The Verve release Forth, their first album since Urban Hymns in 1997. It proves to be their last.

November 2, 2007 In Glasgow, a reunited Verve play their first show since 1998. The band part ways again in 2009.

October 11, 1997 On the UK albums chart, it's battling Britpop as The Verve's Urban Hymns knocks Oasis' Be Here Now out of #1.

August 9, 1997 In Sheffield, England, The Verve play their first show since their breakup two years earlier. The following month, they release their album Urban Hymns, which becomes one of the most successful in UK history.

July 11, 1995 Richard Ashcroft of The Verve marries Kate Radley of Spiritualized. They keep it quiet for two years, as Radley's bandmate, Jason Pierce, is also her ex-boyfriend.