Clive Davis, the man who helped shape the sound of American popular music for more than six decades, died Monday at the age of ninety four. His family announced the news on social media, saying that Davis was “the iconic music legend whose vision, instincts, and relentless pursuit of excellence shaped the soundtrack of countless lives.” He was way more than a record executive. Here swerved as a talent scout, a mentor to so many artists, and a cultural icon whose influence can be heard in the work of artists from Janis Joplin to Whitney Houston to Alicia Keys.
Davis was born in Brooklyn in 1932 and grew up in a working class household. He studied law at Harvard and joined Columbia Records in 1956 as a staff attorney. He had no formal background in music, but he had something more valuable, a set of ears that could hear a hit before anyone else in the room. By 1967 he had risen to become president of Columbia, one of the most powerful positions in the American music industry.
Monterey 1967 and the Discovery of Janis Joplin
The moment that defined his early career came in June of 1967, when Davis attended the Monterey Pop Festival in California after friends and his business associate, Lou Adler, who was a producer of the event, convinced him. The three-day music gathering was a special moment in American music history. Two years before Woodstock, it was a gathering of artists that introduced the world to a new generation of performers. Davis walked the grounds with his eyes and ears wide open, watching sets by Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Simon and Garfunkel, and a raw, relatively unknown singer from Port Arthur, Texas, named Janis Joplin, who was performing with Big Brother and the Holding Company.
Joplin’s performance stopped him cold. He signed the band to Columbia shortly after the festival, and the resulting album, Cheap Thrills, released in 1968, went to number one on the Billboard charts and stayed there for eight weeks. It was one of the defining records of the era, and it demonstrated that Davis could see, and more importantly, hear the future.
Founding Arista Records and Signing Whitney Houston
Davis left Columbia in 1973 and went on to found Arista Records, a label that would become one of the most successful in the history of the industry. At Arista At Arista, Davis signed Barry Manilow, followed by Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Patti Smith, Westlife, Al Jourgensen, The Outlaws, Eric Carmen, Kenny G, the Bay City Rollers, Exposé, Taylor Dayne, Milli Vanilli, Ace of Base, Air Supply, Ray Parker Jr., Raydio, and Alicia Keys, and he brought Carly Simon, Melissa Manchester, Grateful Dead, The Kinks, Jermaine Stewart, Gil Scott-Heron. He also signed a young singer named Whitney Houston, whom he discovered in 1983 performing in a New York club. Houston’s self-titled debut album, released in 1985, became one of the best selling debut albums in history, and Davis produced and guided her career for the rest of her life.
Bruce Springsteen, and What Clive Davis Meant to the Artists He Believed In
He also signed Bruce Springsteen to Columbia Records in 1973, a yet another consequential decision in rock and roll history. Springsteen, who was twenty-two-years-old at the time and unknown outside of the New Jersey club circuit, posted a tribute to Davis on Instagram on Monday that captured what so many artists felt about the man.
“Over here on E Street, we mourn the death of the great record man and close friend Clive Davis,” Springsteen wrote. “At 22 years old, he changed my life when he signed me to Columbia Records. He treated me with the same respect and kindness as a 22-year-old nobody as he did after all my success. A great man. All our prayers and love.”
J Records, Alicia Keys, and a Career That Never Stopped
Davis continued to work well into his eighties, founding J Records in 2000 and signing Alicia Keys, whose debut album Songs in A Minor became one of the best selling records of that year and earned her five Grammy awards. He also worked with Rod Stewart, Jennifer Hudson, and a generation of younger artists who sought him out for his counsel and his instincts.
He wrote a memoir, *The Soundtrack of My Life*, published in 2013, in which he described the moments that shaped his career, including that night at Monterey when he first heard Janis Joplin’s voice and knew immediately that he was in the presence of something rare. The book was a candid account of his life in music, and it became a bestseller. Joplin even wanted to take him to bed as a thank you, but Davis declined.
The Music World Responds
When news of his passing spread Monday, the music world responded immediately. Alicia Keys posted, “You believed in me before I believed in myself. There are no words for what you meant to me and to music.” Carlos Santana wrote, “Clive had a gift for seeing the light in an artist before the world could see it. He saw it in all of us.” Rod Stewart added, “A giant has left us. He changed the course of so many careers, including mine, and he did it with grace and generosity.”
Barry Manilow, whose career Davis shaped more than perhaps anyone else’s, wrote simply, “He was my mentor, my champion, and my friend. I would not be here without him.”
Clive Davis is survived by his children and grandchildren, and by the music he helped bring into the world. He earned multiple Grammy Awards, a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a reputation as the most gifted talent scout the American music industry has ever produced.
He was ninety four years old, and he never stopped listening.
Clive Davis Instagram