Clive Davis Dies: Music Biz Icon Who Discovered Whitney Houston & Revived Careers Was 94
He was not on the list.
Clive Davis, the Grammy-winning music mogul who founded
Arista Records, discovered and mentored Whitney Houston, had a storied ear for
a hit and specialized in resurrecting the careers of artists many considered
past their peak, died Monday at his New York City home, his family announced.
He was 94. No cause of death was provided, but he had been hospitalized
recently with respiratory problems.
“Our father was the iconic music legend whose vision,
instincts, and relentless pursuit of excellence shaped the soundtrack of
countless lives,” his family said on social media in part. “He discovered,
mentored and championed the greatest artists in modern music history, leaving
an indelible mark on culture that will endure for generations.”
A four-time Grammy winner, Davis most recently had served as
Chief Creative Officer at Sony Music since 2018. He founded Arista Records in
1974 after a storied tenure in senior posts at Columbia/CBS Records and later
Arista predecessor Bell Records. His label would specialize in revitalizing the
careers of veteran artists whose commercial success seemed to have peaked.
Among those were Aretha Franklin,the Grateful Dead, Santana, the Kinks, Dionne
Warwick and many more. The label also was home to such popular acts as Houston,
Barry Manilow, Air Supply and Patti Smith.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Davis’ legacy is tied to one of
the most popular singers of the past half-century. Whitney Houston had been a
backup singer for such acts as Lou Rawls, Chaka Khan and Jermaine Jackson
before Davis saw her onstage in New York. He signed her to Arista in 1983 and
would mentor the young phenom for the next quarter-century. Houston became
Arista’s all-time best-selling act, with sales of her albums and singles
topping 109 million in the U.S. alone. She died in 2012 at the Beverly Hilton,
a day before a planned appearance at Davis’ annual star-studded pre-Grammy
party.
Born on April 4, 1932, in Brooklyn, Davis worked as a lawyer
before landing an assistant counsel job at Columbia Records in the early 1960s
at age 28. By 1965, he was upped to administrative VP and GM following an exec
reshuffle, charged with overseeing the Columbia and Epic labels. The
CBS-Columbia Group was launched a year later, and Davis headed up the new
division.
During his tenure atop CBS Records, Davis would sign and
record such legendary acts as Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin,
Pink Floyd, Santana, Donovan, Chicago, Aerosmith, Billy Joel and Earth, Wind
& Fire. But he would be fired unceremoniously in 1973 amid a scandal over
alleged padding of expense reports for personal use.
But the mogul hardly was done.
Davis took over the reins at CBS’ Bell Records, which scored
a global smash by a young singer-songwriter who had made a name penning and
singing such earworm commercial jingles as “You Deserve a Break Today” for
McDonald’s and “Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm Is There” for the insurance
giant. Barry Manilow’s “Mandy” — renamed from “Brandy” after Looking Glass had
a big hit with the maritime-themed “Brandy” — topped charts on both sides of
the pond and launched a stellar pop career.
Bell would morph into Arista Records, which was the label
home to dozens of popular and acclaimed acts. Arista Nashville began in 1989
with the signing of future legend Alan Jackson. There were missteps for Arista
along the way, including the Milli Vanilli fiasco of the late 1980s, but the
label would become a destination where artists would revive their careers after
commercial step-backs or dormancy.
During Davis’ quarter-century tenure atop the label, it
scored platinum success with many “heritage” acts including The Grateful Dead,
which had its lone Top 10 single with “Touch of Grey” in 1987, culled from In
the Dark, the best-selling LP of the group’s career. Davis signed British
Invasion stalwarts The Kinks in 1976, and the group would see its first real
U.S. chart success in years after ditching its ’70s concept-album streak and
focusing on guitar-fueled rock ‘n’ roll.
Arista inked the Queen of Soul in 1980 and would revive
Franklin’s commercial fates with such tracks as “Freeway of Love,” “Who’s
Zoomin’ Who” and “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me).” Warwick hadn’t scored a
solo hit in a decade before inking with Arista and releasing “I’ll Never Love
This Way Again.”
But Davis and Arista’s biggest commercial coup with a legacy
act would be at the end of the millennium, and the exec’s swan song.
Davis first signed guitar phenom Carlos Santana’s eponymous
band in to Columbia in 1969, months before the group’s triumph at Woodstock.
After a long string of hit records, the band’s fortunes waned from the mid-’80s
to the late ’90s. Davis signed the group and persuaded its leader to record an
album with a number of mostly younger artists. The result was Supernatural —
and supersonic.
Its lead single was “Smooth,” co-written and sung by Rob
Thomas, whose Matchbox Twenty had scored a massive hit with its 1996 album
Yourself or Someone Like You, which was stacked with hit singles. “Smooth”
topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a dozen consecutive weeks, reached No. 1 in 10
other countries and was among pop’s all-time biggest hits. Follow-up single
“Maria Maria” was No. 1 for 10 weeks, and Supernatural went on spend 12 weeks
atop the Billboard 200, ultimately shifting more than 15 million units in the
U.S. alone. Davis produced the album — which also featured such collaborators
as Eric Clapton, Lauryn Hill, Dave Matthews, Maná, CeeLo Green, Everlast and
Eagle-Eye Cherry — and earned Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Rock
Album of the Year.
Davis left Arista in 2000 and formed indie label J Records,
which during the next decade would release music by the likes of Alicia Keys —
whose debut Songs in A Minor sold millions — along with hit albums by Luther
Vandross, D’Angelo, Monica, Jamie Foxx and others.
From 2004-11, Davis would run RCA Music Group, whose labels
also included RCA Records, Jive Records and LaFace Records, which was founded
by Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and Antonio “L.A.” Reid, who had taken over from
Davis as Arista chief. BMG took a controlling stake In J records in 2002.
BMG would merge with Sony Music Entertainment in 2004, Davis
stayed with RCA until being named Chief Creative Officer at Sony BMG four years
later. Arista and J Records were dissolved in 2011, with its acts migrating to
RCA Records.
“Clive of course played a seminal role in the story of Sony
Music through two incredible chapters, and he is responsible for a huge part of
the recorded legacy of the company permanently,” Rob Stringer, Chairman of Sony
Music Group, said in a statement. “Not only are many, many artists we represent
continuously indebted to his service but so many staff members have been
influenced and mentored by his deep love and respect for our company which he
carried right up until today. Our working lives are better for having had his
constant presence in the aura and perception of Sony Music.”
Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
2000 and was honored with the prestigious Grammy Trustee Award the same year.
He received the President’s Merit Award at the 2009 Grammys. Along with his two
wins for Supernatural, Davis won Grammys for producing Kelly Clarkson’s
Breakaway in 2006 and Jennifer Hudson’s self-titled disc in 2009. The Grammy
Museum in Los Angeles named its 200-seat performance space the Clive Davis
Theater.
In 2017, he was the subject of Clive Davis: The Soundtrack
of Our Lives, a feature doc by Chris Perkel that won Best Music Documentary at
the Critics Choice Awards. He also produced a number of music-themed movies and
TV specials including Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody — the biopic
in which Stanley Tucci portrayed Davis — and Rod Stewart’s It Had to Be You:
The Great American Songbook.
Davis is survived by his children Fred, Lauren, Doug and
Mitchell.
