Music executive Clive Davis dead at 94

Generational music executive Clive Davis died in his home in New York on Monday after a short hospitalization, according to his family. He was 94. A flood of tributes has since followed, including those from musical figures such as Patti Smith and Harry Connick, Jr. 

Davis was born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in 1932. After graduating from New York University, he attended Harvard Law School and worked at a law firm in Midtown Manhattan. At 28, he joined Columbia Records, a client of that former firm. There, he used his knowledge of contracts to finagle the industry’s financial structures. By 1966, Davis was the president of Columbia, signing Janis Joplin, Barry Manilow, Earth, Wind & Fire, Santana, and Bruce Springsteen, among others. 

In 1974, after being fired from Columbia over allegations that he had spent company money on his son’s bar mitzvah, Davis started his own label: Arista Records. There, he worked with such clients as Lou Reed, the Grateful Dead, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, and The Kinks. It was there that he signed Whitney Houston, who arguably became his biggest discovery. Carly Simon, whose comeback he shepherded there, called him “on the side of the winner at all costs,” telling the New York Times that “his energy, his testosterone, all his hormones were ignited by having the biggest No 1 records. The cost can be somebody’s career or somebody’s innateness.” In 2000, Davis was ousted from Arista and started yet another label, J Records, where he worked with artists like Maroon 5 and Rod Stewart. In 2008, Davis was named chief creative officer for Sony BMG, now Sony Music Entertainment. 

Davis was awarded with numerous accolades in his career: four Grammys for his production work and two for his impact on the industry; a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction; the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU. But Davis, as with any titan of industry, was not without media fracas: aside from the aforementioned bar mitzvah debacle, he called Kelly Clarkson a “shitty songwriter” after the singer won American Idol. He mentored Diddy, a fact that has only recently become a stain on his record. In 2012, he had his annual Grammys party on the day of Houston’s death in the same hotel where she died, a decision Chaka Khan called “complete insanity.” A year later, at age 81, he came out as bisexual in his memoir. 

In the wake of his death, however, it seems Davis will be remembered most for his contributions. He was relentless, yes, but also tireless—dedicated to the music he thought had potential, a haver of a “golden ear.” Springsteen said of Davis in an online tribute, “he treated me with the same respect and kindness as a 22-year-old nobody as he did after all my success.” Carlos Santana called Davis a “visionary” whose faith in the band was “a beautiful blessing.” Alicia Keys thanked the producer, calling him “the visionary who transformed dreams into reality.” “This is thanking Clive Davis for transforming music,” Smith wrote, “and on a very personal note, for believing in me, shepherding my efforts and a half century of your love and support.”

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