"The Drugs Don't Work" by the British band The Verve and is featured on their third album, Urban Hymns. It was released on 1 September 1997 as the second single from the album, charting at number 1 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming the band's most successful single in the UK. Though the exact meaning of the song is unclear, it is generally believed that composer Richard Ashcroft wrote the song in response to the death of his father to cancer blank">http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/songlibrary/drugsdontwork.shtml, and is also thought to be influenced by his relationship with his wife, Ashcroft saying in an interview "to me, it's a lovesong".
The song has also been covered by _Ben Harper on his live album Live from Mars, and has also been covered by Skin. In Australia it was also covered by Grinspoon for youth radio station Triple J's Like A Version CD. The song has also been covered by Devorah on his album 'Bitter sweet synphony / Drugs don't work' (Progressive genre).
The lyrics of the original demo varied from the eventual album track, with the main line changing from "They just make me worse" to "They just make you worse".
The single was also noted during Channel 4's "100 Greatest #1 Singles" programme as unintentionally capturing the spirit of the nation as it was released the day after Princess Diana died.
