Key Points
- Clive Davis, the music executive who signed Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen, and Alicia Keys, died June 22 at 94.
- He led Columbia Records, founded Arista Records, and launched J Records across a six-decade career.
- His Pre-Grammy Gala ran for 51 editions from 1976; the final one was January 31 at the Beverly Hilton.
- He seeded Bad Boy Records with roughly $10–15 million, enabling the launch of The Notorious B.I.G.'s career.
Clive Davis died on June 22 at his Manhattan home. He was 94. The Brooklyn-born, Harvard Law-trained executive who reshaped the recording industry across six decades — signing Janis Joplin at Monterey, discovering Whitney Houston at 19, and bankrolling Sean Combs' Bad Boy Records — passed from age-related illness, surrounded by family.
Columbia, Arista, J Records
Davis ran Columbia Records from 1967, when he attended the Monterey Pop Festival and redirected the label toward rock, signing Joplin, Santana, Chicago, and a 22-year-old Bruce Springsteen. After his 1973 dismissal over expense irregularities, he founded Arista Records in 1974 and built it into a powerhouse on the strength of Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, Patti Smith, and the Grateful Dead. He guided Santana's 1999 comeback album "Supernatural" to nine Grammys. When BMG removed him from Arista in 2000, he launched J Records and signed Alicia Keys. He held the title of Chief Creative Officer at Sony Music Entertainment until his death.
The hip-hop bridge
Davis provided roughly $10–15 million in seed money for Sean Combs to launch Bad Boy Records through Arista, a partnership that brought The Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, and Mase to market. Through LaFace Records — the Arista joint venture run by L.A. Reid and Babyface — he also oversaw TLC, Toni Braxton, Usher, and OutKast. The Pre-Grammy Gala he hosted annually from 1976 became the industry's marquee Grammy-weekend event; his 51st and final edition ran January 31 at the Beverly Hilton.
"At 22 years old, he changed my life when he signed me to Columbia Records," Springsteen said. "A great man." Alicia Keys called him "the visionary who transformed dreams into reality." Aretha Franklin, before her own death, had called Davis "the greatest record man of all time."
Source: Variety, Rolling Stone
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