Record Executive Clive Davis Passes Away at Age 94
Whitney Houston (left) and Clive Davis (right)
Legendary record executive, Clive Davis, has passed away at the age of 94. Living a full life, Mr. Davis is almost entirely responsible for many of the artists and songs that have shaped the world and many lives over time. The news comes after the reporting of his loved ones, who stated Mr. Davis died in his home in New York City on Monday, June 22nd.
Clive Davis didn’t begin his career as a music executive, rather a corporate lawyer. He studied at Harvard’s School of Law where he graduated in 1956 after earning his undergraduate degree from New York University (NYU). Mr. Davis worked briefly at a law firm in New York City but mostly found it unfulfilling. Pushing himself to find the excitement in his career, he landed a position in Columbia Records’ legal department around 1960. This jolt in his career offered him a path where his negotiation skills and savvy instincts earned him several promotions over the years, rather quickly in the corporate world. He held the titles of Assistant Counsel, General Counsel, Administrative Vice President, and Vice President & General Manager - and by 1967 he was named President of Columbia Records as a whole. By his own words, he wasn’t necessarily deep into music culture himself until he attended the Monterey Pop Festival shortly after he become President, and this is where it finally dawned on his head how the course of music actually shapes culture, youth, and the world around us. This is also where he first witnessed Columbia signee Janis Joplin. Around this time, Mr. Davis signed timeless acts such as Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Santana, and even Aerosmith.
By 1974, Clive Davis himself founded his own record label, Arista Records, where he signed notable acts like Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, Patti Smith, and Grateful Dead. As an astounding executive at this point, Mr. Davis’ Arista Records was started with an initial $10,000,000 investment and was later sold for $50,000,000 in 1979. His biggest act from the Arista days was a woman by the name of Whitney Houston, who was just 19 years of age when Clive Davis signed her. She would go on to live as one of the most noteworthy vocalist ever in music.
Moving forward, Mr. Davis’ next big investment came when he co-founded LaFace Records with Babyface and LA Reid. With this, they went on to produce the biggest songs of the 1990’s from the likes of Outkast, TLC, Usher, Pink, Toni Braxton. This further cemented the idea of music through youth, as these artists were the biggest amongst the teens of that day and we now see how that music has grown and remained - even so, someone like me sees these artists as untouchable legends, but at one point in time, just music for the kids of that era. Mr. Davis also participated in the launch of Bad Boy Records with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and even the introduction of Alicia Keys by the year 2000. Since 1975, remaining a focal point in the infrastructure of music, he hosted his annual pre-GRAMMY gala which always took place the night before the GRAMMY Award ceremony.
Clive Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the year 2000 and won 5 GRAMMY Awards in his career. By the words of Aretha Franklin, Mr. Davis can almost certainly be considered “the greatest record man of all time".”
