Clive Davis

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Clive Jay Davis (born April 4, 1932) is a Grammy Award winning record producer and the founder of Arista Records, J Records and is the President of RCA Records. He is the President of the RCA Music Group as well as the North American division of BMG. Davis is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer.

Contents 1 Early life and career: The CBS years 2 The Arista years 3 Other achievements 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Early life and career: The CBS years

Davis is from a working class Jewish family and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He was named Clive by his mother, who was a great fan of a British actor with that name. Davis graduated Phi Beta Kappa from New York University College of Arts and Science in 1953 and received a scholarship to Harvard Law School. Davis graduated and practiced law in a small firm which folded, then moved on to the firm of Rosenman, Colin, Kaye, Petschek and Freund, which had CBS Records as a client. Davis was then hired by the legal department of CBS subsidiary Columbia Records.

He discovered a passion for music which led him up the ranks of Columbia and CBS. In 1967, he became president of CBS Records. At almost the same time, he became a convert to the newest generation of folk rock and rock and roll. That year he attended the Monterey Pop Festival and was inspired by what he saw as the future of music. He immediately signed Janis Joplin and Big Brother & the Holding Company, and Columbia went on to sign Laura Nyro, Electric Flag, Santana, Bruce Springsteen, Chicago, Billy Joel, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Pink Floyd.^[1] The company, which had previously avoided rock music, doubled its market share in three years. In 1972, Davis also signed the group Earth, Wind & Fire to CBS Records.

Amid government investigations of financial irregularities in the record industry, CBS, nervous about losing its licenses, fired Davis and his Director of Artist Relations, David Wynshaw, amid charges that they had used company money for personal expenses. In 1976 he was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced the maximum fine of $10,000. The government dropped five other counts against him.

[edit] The Arista years

After being fired from CBS Records, Columbia Pictures hired Clive Davis to be a consultant for the company’s record and music operations. After assuming the presidency of this division in late 1974, Davis would merge the various Columbia legacy labels (Colpix Records, Colgems Records, and Bell Records) into a new entity named Arista Records, ultimately buying a percentage of the company from Columbia. The label was named Arista after New York City's secondary school honor society (of which Davis was a member). This label has one of the most diverse lineups in the record industry. It has been home to Grammy Award winning pop superstar and the best-selling artist on label Whitney Houston, singer-songwriter Barry Manilow, Dionne Warwick, Monica, Gary Glitter, Exposé, Angie Aparo, Sarah McLachlan, Annie Lennox, saxophonist Kenny G, rappers The Notorious B.I.G. and Sean "Puffy" Combs, Aretha Franklin, Toni Braxton, Air Supply, Ace of Base, The Alpha Band, The Grateful Dead, TLC, Willie Nile, Nona Hendryx, American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino, and Patti Smith among others. In the 1970s, Arista also had an extensive jazz line, most notably its Freedom imprint, concentrating on contemporary, sometimes avant-garde, musicians and widely praised reissues from the legendary Savoy label.

Davis was parodied in part by Patrick Macnee, in the 1984 movie This is Spinal Tap.^{[citation needed]} On January 28, 1997, Davis received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 2000, Davis ran into disagreements with Arista owners BMG (a member of the Bertelsmann group) over the way he ran the label. Reports point to his age (late sixties at the time), lack of a succession plan, and free-spending habits as points of contention. Once released from Arista, he founded yet another independent record label, J Records. Bertelsmann even invested $150,000,000 in the company. In building his new company, some of his first signings were recording artists Luther Vandross and Alicia Keys. That year, Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the non-performers branch.

Three years later, at the beginning of 2003, BMG wooed Davis back into the fold, naming him head of RCA Records. The following year in 2004, Davis was promoted to Chairman and CEO of BMG North America by Rolf Schmidt-Holtz. He now oversees the careers of such artists like Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and Kelly Clarkson. Late last year 2006, Clive announced that the best singer & best selling artist on his label, Whitney Houston, will be having a comeback early/mid-2007. Whitney started to record her album March 13th.

[edit] Other achievements

In 2003, Davis donated money to the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University (NYU) to create the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music. The undergraduate program, the first of its kind in the country, recognizes the creative record producer as an artist in his or her own right and musical recording itself as a creative medium.

He has been at the forefront of American Idol, as it is his company that signs the American Idol winners and runners-up. He has appeared as a guest judge in every season and has chosen songs for the finalists to sing during the last weeks of competition.

In December 2006 it was announced by The X Factor judge Simon Cowell that Davis had agreed to join in on making the latest X Factor winner Leona Lewis a star. In February 2007, Davis signed Lewis up for a $9.7million five-album record deal.

Clive Davis has won three Grammy Awards. At the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2000 he won Best Rock Album and Album of the Year for producing Carlos Santana's "Supernatural". At the 48th Annual Grammy Awards in 2006 he won Best Pop Vocal Album for Producing Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway".

[edit] External links

Clive Davis on World Top 100 A&R Chart

[edit] References

1. ^ In the same years, he also pressured jazz icon Miles Davis in inserting electric elements in his music, thus helping to start the process that would ultimeately result in the creation of fusion.