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• Jackson wins posthumous gongs

  BBC - Found Nov. 23, 2009 ... received an international award of excellence which she dedicated to her daughter Bobbi, music mogul Clive Davis and "everybody who supported... Taylor Swift wins five AMAs - Hollywood Reporter Taylor Swift's dream year brings out naysayers - Reuters Michael Jackson's Big Night - FOXNews.com CNN - Rihanna, Happy To Be Back, Hits AMA Stage - CNN Explore All

  ChartAttack.com

• Open Season

  Biased BBC - Found Nov. 22, 2009 Via Clive Davis , a quote from Richard Black taken from the BBC's staff magazine Ariel: In case you ever want to meet up in the blogosphere, I?m

• CéU into the future

  Times Online - Found Nov. 21, 2009 Her brilliant new record shows us where the country is now heading Clive Davis Could it be Brazil?s moment at last?

• Arista Records/Legacy Recordings Ready to Release Whitney Houston - ...

  Reuters - Found Nov. 20, 2009 The Wiz) on the Merv Griffin Show in 1983. Exclusive and newly filmed interviews with Whitney Houston and Clive Davis round out the bonus DVD... Arista Records/Legacy Recordings Ready to Release Whitney Houston - ... - Houston Chronicle Arista Records/Legacy Recordings Ready to Release Whitney Houston - ... - Los Angeles Business Arista Records/Legacy Recordings Ready to Release Whitney Houston - ... - Sys-Con Media Arista Records/Legacy Recordings Ready to Release Whitney Houston - ... - Interest!ALERT Explore All

• Counterpoint: Midtown Sucks [Fake Trends]

  Gawker - Found Nov. 18, 2009 André Balazs and Sumner Redstone, Bill Murray, Meryl Streep, David Chang, J Lo, Naomi Campbell, Clive Davis, Carolina Herrera and Calvin...

• Connick Jr.: Not Your Average Crooner

  CBS News - Found Nov. 17, 2009 ... admits that he was "blown away" when he heard that Davis wanted to do a CD featuring his voice. "To have Clive Davis request the opportunity to...

• Miles Davis Radio starting on Sirius XM this Friday

  Orbitcast - Found Nov. 16, 2009 Hancock, guitarist John Scofield, pianist Monty Alexander, record executives Bruce Lundvall and Clive Davis, Davis' long-time road manager...

• Driving to Distraction

  Jessica Duchen's classical music blog - Found Nov. 14, 2009 In which Clive Davis has a problem with speedy Bach, I recall a little Wagner on the M3 and we encounter the unfortunate consequence of forgotten

• [PR] Announcing the 2009 IDA Awards nominees

  Movie City Indie - Found Nov. 12, 2009 Tutu & Richard Branson Stella McCartney & Ed Ruscha Tony Hawk & John Favreau Bill Maher & Clive Davis Venus Williams & Wyclef Jean...

• **EXCLUSIVE** Harry Connick Jr. and Clive Davis talk about the ...

  The Observer News Enterprise - Found Nov. 21, 2009 **EXCLUSIVE** Harry Connick Jr. and Clive Davis talk about the preparation and collaboration involved in Connick's latest album 'Your Songs' at the

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Clive Davis
Clive Davis, November 13, 2007, New York City
Born	April 4, 1932(1932-04-04) (age 77) Brooklyn, New York
Occupation	Record producer

Clive Davis (born April 4, 1932) is an American record producer, executive and a leading music industry executive. He has won multiple Grammy awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. From 1967-72 he was the President of Columbia Records, was the founder and president of Arista Records in the late 1970s through 2000 until founding J Records. From 2003 until April 2008, Davis was the Chairman and CEO of the RCA Music Group (which included RCA Records, J Records and Arista Records), Chairman and CEO of J Records, and Chairman and CEO of BMG North America. Currently Davis is the Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Entertainment Worldwide.¹ He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer.² He currently plays a part in the careers of Alicia Keys, Kelly Clarkson, Harry Connick, Jr., Leona Lewis and Whitney Houston.

Contents 1 Early life and career: The CBS years 2 The Arista years 3 Chief creative officer at Sony Music 4 References 5 Further reading

Early life and career: The CBS years

Davis was born in Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish family, the son of Herman and Florence Davis. After spending his first four years in England, Davis was raised in the middle-class neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He received a full scholarship to New York University College of Arts and Science, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa in 1953. He then received a full scholarship to Harvard Law School, where he graduated in 1956. He practiced law in a small firm in New York, then moved on to the firm of Rosenman, Colin, Kaye, Petschek, and Freund two years later, where partner Ralph Colin had CBS as client. Hired by a former colleague at the firm, Harvey Schein, Davis became assistant counsel of CBS subsidiary Columbia Records at the age of twenty-eight.³

Davis became a protegé of CBS Records President Goddard Lieberson, and discovered a passion for music which led him up the ranks of Columbia/CBS. In 1967, he became president of Columbia Records and, more or less by accident, he became a convert to 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 USA on the Epic label.

In June 1967, at the urging of his friend and business associate Lou Adler, Davis attended the Monterey Pop Festival, a musical event that changed the course of his career, and was inspired by what he saw as the future of music.

He immediately signed Janis Joplin with Big Brother & the Holding Company, and Columbia went on to sign Laura Nyro, Jimmie Spheeris, Electric Flag, Santana, The Chambers Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, Andy Pratt, Chicago, Billy Joel, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Pink Floyd. The company, which had previously avoided rock music, doubled its market share in three years. One of the biggest recordings released during Davis' tenure at Columbia was Lynn Anderson's "Rose Garden", in late 1970. It was Davis who insisted "Rose Garden" be the country singer's next single release. The song reached number one in 16 countries around the world and remained the biggest selling album by a female country artist from 1971–1997.

In 1972, Davis also signed Iggy Pop and Earth, Wind & Fire to Columbia Records. One of his most recognized accomplishments was signing the Boston group Aerosmith to Columbia Records in the early 70s at New York City's Max's Kansas City, which was immortalized in the 1979 Aerosmith classic "No Surprise", where Steven Tyler sings "Old Clive Davis said he's surely gonna make you a star, just the way you are".⁴ Starting in 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 silver now we play for Clive Davis".

The Arista years

After Davis was fired from CBS Records for using company funds to bankroll his son's bar mitzvah,⁵ Columbia Pictures hired him to be a consultant for the company record and music operations. After taking time out to write his memoirs, he was offered the presidency of the division in late 1974.⁶ Davis subsequently merged the various labels -- Colpix Records, Colgems Records and Bell Records -- into a new entity named Arista Records, ultimately buying a percentage of the company from Columbia Pictures. The label was named Arista after New York City's secondary school honor society (of which Davis was a member). Two of his greatest accomplishments during his time at Arista Records were the signing of music legends Lou Reed and Whitney Houston.

Davis was featured in the February 21, 2008 (1046) issue of Rolling Stone. The article titled "The Last Record Man" discusses how Davis has helped guide the careers of hit artists and how even four decades later he still looks for the next hit.

Chief creative officer at Sony Music

In a reshuffling of the executive ranks at Sony BMG, it was announced on April 18, 2008 that Davis was appointed chief creative officer at Sony BMG. Zomba Music Group head Barry Weiss replaced Davis as chairman and CEO of the BMG label group. ^{7not in citation given} Sony BMG became Sony Music Entertainment in 2008 and in his role as chief creative officer, Davis is reasserting himself in his role as starmaker at Sony Music.⁸

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ Clive Davis
3. ^ Dannen, Frederic (1990). Hit Men. Times Books. pp. 66-67. ISBN 0-8129-1658-1
4. ^ "Aerosmith Biography: From Clive Davis to Guitar Hero: Aerosmith". Max's Kansas City. 2008-09-26. http://www.maxskansascity.com/aerosmith/. Retrieved 2008-09-26. 
5. ^ http://www.answers.com/topic/clive-davis
6. ^ Dannen, Frederic (1990). p. 107.
7. ^ http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/18/news/companies/sony_bmg_chief.ap/index.htm?eref=ew
8. ^ http://www.nypost.com/seven/10102008/business/sony_music_turns_to_davis_for_hit_133017.htm

Further reading

• Davis, Clive (1975). Clive: Inside the Record Business. William Morrow & Company, Inc.