The firm that Davis was working for in New York City was hired by Columbia Records as their legal counsel. Clive was the assistant council. That was all the way back in the 60’s. He rose to chief council and eventually was asked to move into Columbia Records management before becoming President and CEO.
At that time Columbia needed to move into the new world of rock music. Clive didn’t waste any time making the much-needed move. In almost a heartbeat, he signed a long list of artists who would become stars.
Among them included Janis Joplin & Big Brother and the Holding Company, Santana, Chicago, Laura Nyro, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Earth Wind & Fire and many more. Then hit a scandal.
Clive Davis was fired by Columbia for allegedly using company money for payola to radio stations. Despite his absolute denial, he moved on.
It wasn’t very long before Davis was tapped to start a new record label. It was called Arista Records after the name of a New York High School honor society that Clive was selected for while attending high school in the city.
Starting from scratch may have been much harder for someone else, but since that was pretty much what he did at Columbia Records, Clive was up to the task. The first thing he did was get rid of most of the artists on the company he inherited, Bell Records. He kept a couple like Barry Manilow and Melissa Manchester.
Davis then tried to use the same play book as he did at Columbia. Most of the first artists he signed were brand new. He soon made a mark with The Outlaws, Patti Smith, Air Supply, and his biggest find-Whitney Houston. She sold over 220 million records to become one of the biggest selling artists of all time.
The early success made it possible to entice established artists like The Grateful Dead, The Kinks Lou Reed, Eric Carman Al Stewart and others. They made it possible for him sign projects that had to be built or were in a specialized market.
One of those who was with Clive at Columbia Records was Eric Andersen. Listen to my podcast with Eric. He talks about Clive saving his life twice. First by signing him to Columbia and then again to Arista. Clive loved rebuilding careers and did show some loyalty to artists.
In 1979, I was approached by Clive Davis and Arista Records to become a member of their management team. Initially I hesitated. Not because of Clive or Arista, but because i was a radio person and the only thing I knew about the record business was what I read in the book written by Clive Davis “Inside the Record Business “in 1975.
Eventually I decided to take the offer and thus began two of the most interesting years of my life. Working for Arista and Clive Davis could probably be made into a movie.
His staff meetings where we discussed new artists for possible signing by playing their demos or listening to new releases artists that were already on the Arista roster were always interesting. While there were some differences of opinion, the final say was always Clive Davis.
I soon learned that the biggest problem Arista had as a new label was, they didn’t have a catalog of artists that could be relied on to sell records even if the company didn’t have a current hit. Other companies had a cash flow from sales of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, etc. Arista had to be like a shark constantly looking for food in order stay alive.
That meant sometimes taking chances on unknown artists. Sometimes that paid off big time, sometimes it didn’t. Alan Parsons, Graham Parker, Ray Parker, JR and The Thompson Twins did. Others like Tycoon, The Sports, The Elevators and D L Byron did not. One of the biggest disappointments was Willie Nile. We all thought (and I still do) he was a can’t miss talent.
My time and others as well came to an abrupt halt. The company was bought out and merged with another. Clive Davis and a much smaller staff stayed on. That too came to an end, and Clive Davis started his own label in 2000 just called J.
One of the things that Clive was very good at doing was getting an artist to be more commercial by writing songs that he sensed the public wanted to hear. The Grateful Dead for example, admitted that it was the urging of Clive to tighten up their music that led to their biggest hits.
The biggest success story for J records was Rod Stewart. The big-time star was having a problem finding the right material to record and his star was fading. At the urging of Clive Davis, he did an album of American standards. Rod probably was doubtful that a well-known rocker could pull this off. It was a huge success.
There’s so much more that one could say about Clive Davis, but it would be way too long for a short article on this website. Saying that he was still working and in demand at 94 tells you how much he was respected.
