Clive Davis, Grammy-Winning record producer and music executive, dies at 94

Clive Davis, the executive who steered Columbia, Arista and J Records to the pinnacle of the pop music business, died Monday at his Manhattan home, Variety has confirmed. No cause of death was cited, although he was recently hospitalized after suffering respiratory problems. He was 94.

Befitting a dramatic 50-year career that accounted for the sale of millions of records, Davis’ life in the music industry divided into three distinct acts.

In the late ‘60s, Davis lucratively moved staid Columbia into the rock business, signing or developing such talents as Janis Joplin, Carlos Santana and Bruce Springsteen. But he was ejected from the company in 1973 for allegedly misusing corporate funds, and pleaded guilty to tax evasion.

He rebounded, famously, at Arista Records – an amalgamation of down-at-the-heels imprints owned by Columbia Pictures – where vocalist Whitney Houston was only the biggest and brightest star on a roster of top pop, rock and R&B acts.

A quarter century later, following an awkward merger between parent companies Sony and Bertelsmann, an attempt to push him out of Arista and into retirement resulted instead in his third act with J, a new imprint best known for launching singer-songwriter Alicia Keys.

Davis was so well known in the music industry that he was usually referred to, respectfully, by his first name alone, like such other renowned execs as “Ahmet” (Ertegun, of Atlantic) and “Mo” (Ostin, of Warner Bros.).

Noted for his personal elegance, extravagant style and love of the limelight, Davis for years hosted a lavish annual Grammy Week party that was the music business’ most coveted social ducat. The event, featuring live performances by marquee names and loquaciously MCed by Davis, became an official Recording Academy function in 2009. Always a showcase for superstars and rising musical talent, the “Clive Party” also featured such regulars as Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Jane Fonda as well as musicians.

The most recent Clive Party, held this past Jan. 31 at its longtime home of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, featured performances from Olivia Dean, Laufey, Jelly Roll (performing a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne with MGK), Sombr, Art Garfunkel and the “K-Pop Demon Hunters” stars, and was attended by Joni Mitchell, Brandi Carlile, Lana Del Rey, Jack Antonoff, Rachel Sennot, Hayley Williams, Teyana Taylor, Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson, Karol G, Colman Domingo, Dave Grohl and daughter Violet, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Dave Grohl and so many others.

He also founded the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University in 2003, which is part of the Tisch School of the Arts and was one of the first such schools to merge music with business programs.

Variety interviewed Davis multiple times, including an unusually free-form conversation on the occasion of his 90th birthday, and he also wrote two detailed if occasionally rose-colored autobiographies. But Davis’ career is arguably portrayed most vividly in a different article celebrating his 90th birthday: a lengthy, classic-anecdote-filled collection of interviews with more than 25 executives who worked under him, which presents sides to him that most observers and artists rarely saw.

“Clive was never willing to give up,” said longtime executive Charles Goldstuck in the article. “No matter how tough or intractable a problem was, he always believed that there was solution. He would fight for the solution until he had it.”

-Variety