How The Verve's The Drugs Don't Work captured the mood of the nation in 1997...

1 September 2026, 14:15 | Updated: 4 September 2026, 09:55

The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work (Official Video)

We look back at one of Richard Ashcroft's most moving and poignant tracks and the truth behind its inspiration.

By Jenny Mensah

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The Verve's Urban Hymns album is often among lists of the best British records of all time, with almost every track achieving sonic perfection.

From it comes the emotive and string-filled ballad, The Drugs Don't Work, which is up there among the band's most memorable singles.

Written by frontman Richard Ashcroft in 1995 and released on 1st September 1997, The Drugs Don't Work has been known to reduce many a Verve fans to tears, but who and what was the song about? And just why was it so poignant when it was released over three decades ago?

Radio X finds out below...

Richard Ashcroft onstage with The Verve. Picture: Gie Knaeps/Getty Images

You'd be forgiven for thinking that The Drugs Don't Work had something to do with drug use. After all, Richard Ashcroft said as much himself.

Speaking about his new material to Select magazine back in 1995, the Wigan singer mentioned the song, saying: "There's a new track I've just written [...] It goes 'the drugs don't work, they just make me worse, and I know I'll see your face again'. That's how I'm feeling at the moment. They make me worse, man. But I still take 'em. Out of boredom and frustration you turn to something else to escape."

However, that's not where the story ends...

Now the drugs don't work
They just make you worse
But I know I'll see your face again

Though then it was attributed to recreational drug use, the single has since been linked to both the passing of his father - who died from a blood clot when he was just 11 years old - and his wife Kate Radley's father, who died of cancer.

In fact, some sources even claim the song was written by his father-in-law's bedside- with the most compelling lyrics to support this claim being: "And I hope you're thinking of me/As you lay down on your side" as well as "But I know I'll see your face again".

The Verve's Urban Hymns album. Picture: Ben Molyneux / Alamy Stock Photo

While The Drugs Don't Work may have come from a very personal place, the song itself took on an even more of a universal meaning when one of the most shocking deaths in the UK's history coincided with the single.

Released just one day after Princess Diana tragically died on 31st August 1997, the song went on to capture the spirit of the nation before Elton John went on to release his re-working of Candle In The Wind 13 days later.

Despite having nothing to do with the passing of the beloved figure, her shocking and untimely death served to reflect the nation's mourning even more.

Tributes laid for the late Princess Diana outside Kensington Palace on 1st September 1997. Picture: Ralf-Finn Hestoft/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

The lasting power and multi-layered impact of the song isn't lost on Ashcroft, either.

Speaking to Radio X's John Kennedy about the band's Urban Hymns album as a whole, he said: "I know from meeting people some of those songs have have played a big role in some of the serious times in their lives, whether they be joyous or they be sorrow, and that sort of thing as a songwriter [...] it's an honour and also a blessing".

For this reason, and many more, The Drugs Don't Work gave Ashcroft and his Verve bandmates their only chart-topping single... and a well deserved one at that.