Davis, who got his start in Columbia Records\u2019 legal department, could identify original voices and seemed to intuit which songs were likely to become hits. Sometimes the hits came from the voices themselves, as in the case of Bruce Springsteen, whom Davis cajoled into writing \u201cBlinded by the Light\u201d for his Columbia debut; sometimes the exec match-made performers and composers, as in the case of \u201cMandy\u201d or \u201cFreeway of Love,\u201d a zippy Narada Michael Walden jam that launched Franklin\u2019s comeback in the mid-1980s.<\/p>\n
A natty dresser with a cosmopolitan air, Davis founded Arista in 1974 after he was fired from Columbia (where he\u2019d ascended to the presidency) amid an embezzlement scandal of which he was later cleared. In 2000, he was ousted from Arista in a corporate shakeup \u2014 just months after the label won eight Grammy Awards with Carlos Santana\u2019s 15-times-platinum \u201cSupernatural\u201d LP \u2014 then launched a new label, J Records, which scored an immediate blockbuster with Keys\u2019 \u201cSongs in A Minor.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Clive](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782179957_603_.jpeg\")
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Clive Davis at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2020.<\/p>\n
(Christina House \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Wherever he worked, Davis\u2019 goal was shepherding hits that spanned formats and generations; he delighted in projects like \u201cSmooth,\u201d the inescapable Santana single pairing the rock guitarist and Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty, and a series of Great American Songbook albums by the once-scruffy Rod Stewart<\/a>. He might also have been the music industry\u2019s biggest believer in ballads, at least among suits: Between 1985 and 1992, Houston alone released almost a dozen of music\u2019s all-timers, including \u201cSaving All My Love for You,\u201d \u201cDidn\u2019t We Almost Have It All\u201d and \u2014 perhaps the greatest pop ballad ever recorded \u2014 her take on Dolly Parton\u2019s \u201cI Will Always Love You.\u201d (It wasn\u2019t a huge hit, but listen to Houston and Jermaine Jackson\u2019s pedal-steel-drenched \u201cNobody Loves Me Like You Do,\u201d from Houston\u2019s debut, for an early instance of that crossover ambition.)<\/p>\n One of relatively few nonperformers inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Davis brought his flair for variety to the party he threw at the Beverly Hilton every year on the night before the Grammys \u2014 a famously hot ticket that drew A-list celebs from the worlds of music and Hollywood as well as business and politics. You could always count on the exec to have persuaded some number of the year\u2019s splashiest new acts to perform; this year\u2019s bash, in January, had Sombr<\/a>, Olivia Dean and the women of \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d But my favorite part of the show was always seeing which veteran Davis had tapped to mix it up with the youngsters \u2014 Diamond or Manilow, for instance, or Johnny Mathis<\/a>, who absolutely killed in 2015.<\/p>\n Davis horrified many in 2012 when he opted to proceed with his party just hours after Houston was found dead in a hotel room at the Beverly Hilton. In the years after the singer\u2019s death, Davis drew criticism for taking too much credit for Houston\u2019s artistic achievements; to some, he became a symbol of the music industry\u2019s efforts to tone down Houston\u2019s Blackness in order to reach white audiences. Five years ago, I asked Warwick, who was Houston\u2019s cousin, whether she\u2019d taken on any kind of consulting role on \u201cI Wanna Dance With Somebody,\u201d the 2022 Whitney biopic<\/a> that Davis produced.<\/p>\n Bobby Brown, from left, Whitney Houston and Clive Davis in New York in 1998.<\/p>\n (Stuart Ramson \/ AP)<\/p>\n![\"Bobby](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782179958_671_.jpeg\")
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