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Clive Jay Davis (born April 4, 1932) is an American record producer, A&R executive, record executive, and lawyer. He has won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a non-performer, in 2000.
From 1967 to 1973, Davis was the president of Columbia Records. He was founder and president of Arista Records from 1974 through 2000 until founding J Records. From 2002 until April 2008, he was chair and CEO of the RCA Music Group (which included RCA Records, J Records, and Arista Records), chair and CEO of J Records, and chair and CEO of BMG North America.
Davis is credited with hiring a young recording artist, Tony Orlando, for Columbia in 1967. He has signed many artists who achieved significant success, including Pink Floyd, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, Laura Nyro, Carlos Santana, Bruce Springsteen, Chicago, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, Donovan, Bay City Rollers, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Loggins and Messina, Ace of Base, Olivia Longott and Westlife. He is also credited with bringing Whitney Houston and Barry Manilow to prominence.
As of 2018, Davis is the chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment.
His mother died at age 47, and his father died the following year when Davis was still a teenager. He then moved in with his married sister, who lived in Bayside, Queens.
Davis attended New York University College of Arts & Science, where he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in political science and Phi Beta Kappa in 1953. He received a full scholarship to Columbia Law School, where he was a member of the Board of Student Advisers and graduated in 1956.
As part of a reorganization of Columbia Records Group, group president Goddard Lieberson appointed Davis as administrative vice president and general manager in 1965. In 1966, CBS formed the Columbia-CBS Group which reorganized CBS's recorded music operations into Sony Music with Davis heading the new unit.
The next year, Davis was appointed president and became interested in the newest generation of folk rock and rock and roll. One of his earliest pop signings was the British folk-rock musician Donovan, who enjoyed a string of successful hit singles and albums released in the U.S. on the Epic Records label. That same year, Davis hired 23-year-old recording artist Tony Orlando as general manager of Columbia publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music; Orlando went on to become vice-president of Columbia/CBS Music and signed Barry Manilow in 1969.
In June 1967, Davis attended the Monterey Pop Festival after his friends and business associate, Lou Adler, convinced him. He immediately signed Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Columbia went on to sign Laura Nyro, The Electric Flag, Carlos Santana, The Chambers Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, Chicago, Billy Joel; Blood, Sweat & Tears, Loggins and Messina, Aerosmith, and Pink Floyd (for rights to release their material outside of Europe).
One of the most commercially successful recordings released during Davis' tenure at Columbia was Lynn Anderson's Rose Garden, in late 1970. It was Davis who insisted that "Rose Garden" be the country singer's next single release. The song crossed over and was a No. 1 hit in 16 countries worldwide. "Rose Garden" remained the biggest-selling album by a female country artist for 27 years.
In 1972, Davis signed Earth, Wind & Fire to Columbia Records. One of his most recognized accomplishments was signing the Boston group Aerosmith to Columbia Records in the early 1970s at New York City's Max's Kansas City. The accomplishment was mentioned in the 1979 Aerosmith song "No Surprize", in which Steven Tyler sings, "Old Clive Davis said he's surely gonna make us a star, I'm gonna make you a star, just the way you are." Starting on December 30, 1978, Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead occasionally changed the lyrics of the Dead standard "Jack Straw" in concert from "we used to play for silver, now we play for life", to "we used to play for acid, now we play for Clive."
One of the last bands Davis tried to sign to Columbia Records was the Detroit band Death.
A Rolling Stone article dated July 5, 1973 reported that CBS fired Clive Davis "amid allegations of misuse of funds and providing drugs to artists and disk jockeys" as part of an alleged payola scandal. Davis, however, denies that his dismissal was connected in any way to drugs or payola.The Soundtrack of My Life by Clive Davis and Anthony DeCurtis pp. 169-176
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 (on whose episode of TV One's Unsung Davis was interviewed) and Lou Reed to the label. He co-founded Arista Nashville in 1989 with Tim DuBois, which became the home to Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Pam Tillis, and Brad Paisley.
Davis founded LaFace Records with L.A. Reid and Babyface. LaFace subsequently became the home of TLC, Usher, Outkast, Pink and Toni Braxton. He founded Bad Boy Records with Sean "Puffy" Combs and it became the home of The Notorious B.I.G., Craig Mack, Combs, Mase, 112, and Faith Evans, although Davis would later admit that he never quite understood rap music. In 1998, Davis signed LFO from European Success. LFO charted #3 with "Summer Girls" in 1999, and went on to multiplatinum success.
During the Arista years, he set up his own production company Clive Davis Entertainment, for a two-year first-look agreement with movie studio TriStar Pictures in 1987.
Davis was made aware of Cissy Houston's daughter Whitney Houston after he saw the Houstons perform at a New York City nightclub. Impressed with what he heard, Davis signed her to Arista. Houston became one of the biggest selling artists in music history under the guidance of Davis at Arista.
Davis' continued success in breaking new artists was recognised by the music industry A&R site HitQuarters when the executive was named "world's No.1 A&R of 2001" based on worldwide chart data for that year.
In 2004, BMG merged with Sony Music Entertainment to form Sony BMG. With the assets of the former CBS Records (renamed Sony Music Entertainment in 1991) now under Sony's ownership, the joint venture would mean a return of sorts for Davis to his former employer. Davis remained with RCA Label Group until 2008, when he was named chief creative officer for Sony BMG.
Davis was elevated to Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Entertainment, a title he currently holds, as part of a corporate restructuring when Sony BMG became Sony Music Entertainment in late 2008 when BMG sold its shares to Sony. Arista Records and J Records, which were both founded by Davis, were dissolved in October 2011 through the restructuring of RCA Records. All artists under those labels were moved to RCA Records.
| Grammy Award for Album of the Year | 1994 | The Bodyguard by Whitney Houston | |
| Grammy Award for Album of the Year | 2000 | Supernatural by Santana | |
| Grammy Award for Best Rock Album | 2000 | Supernatural by Santana | |
| Grammy Award for Best R&B Album | 2009 | Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Hudson |
In 2000, Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the non-performers category. The same year, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
In 2015, he was recognized by Equality Forum as one of the 31 Icons of the LGBT History Month.
Davis was a 2018 honoree at The New Jewish Home's Eight Over Eighty Gala.
Davis was portrayed by Academy Awards-nominated actor, Stanley Tucci, in Sony Pictures's – a biopic about the life and music of Houston. Davis also served as a producer on the film.
In 2013, at the age of 80, Davis publicly came out as bisexual in his autobiography The Soundtrack of My Life. On the daytime talk show Katie, he told host Katie Couric that he hoped his coming out would lead to "greater understanding" of bisexuality. The autobiography was the basis for the two-hour documentary .
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