Clive Davis, music industry starmaker, has died at 94
[June 23, 2026]
By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY and MARIA SHERMAN
NEW YORK (AP) — Clive Davis, a music industry mogul who launched or
resurrected the careers of Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana
and Alicia Keys, has died. He was 94.
Davis died in his Manhattan apartment, weeks after being hospitalized
for an upper respiratory issue, his publicist Aliza Rabinoff said.
Many artists mourned his passing on Monday. Carlos Santana called him “a
visionary.” Patti Smith thanked him for a half century of “love and
support.” Davis' family, in a statement, said he "shaped the soundtrack
of countless lives. He discovered, mentored, and championed the greatest
artists in modern music history.”
Davis’ influence grew since the 1960s to span genres and labels as he
directed the careers of everyone from Barry Manilow to “American Idol”
winners Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson. His groundbreaking support
for Black artists earned him the NAACP’s Vanguard Award. His exclusive
pre-Grammys gala has been an institution since he first threw the party
in 1976.
“Clive’s talent has always been seeing and hearing what other people
don’t,” former President Barack Obama said in a video message played at
this year’s gala.
A Brooklyn background
Clive Jay Davis was born on April 4, 1932 in Brooklyn, New York, the son
of a traveling salesman, and attended New York University and then
Harvard Law School. He became an in-house lawyer at a time when Columbia
Records was resisting rock ‘n’ roll. Seven years later, he was company
president and seeking to capitalize on the counterculture spirit he
witnessed at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival.
His success stories were a staggering who’s who of America’s most iconic
and enduring musical acts — with Houston both a crowning achievement and
a devastating tragedy. Davis signed her to his Arista record label when
she was just a teen and turned her into America’s reigning pop princess.
Houston racked up multiple No. 1 hits before drug abuse hobbled her
career. She died in a Beverly Hills hotel room in 2012, hours before
Davis’ annual gala downstairs. He had been convinced she was turning her
life around.
“Maybe I should have been more skeptical,” Davis wrote in his 2013
memoir, “The Soundtrack of My Life,” “but I’ve always been optimistic,
and I felt hopeful. It felt like old times.”
Davis proudly noted the other talents he signed, including Joplin, Bruce
Springsteen, Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, Blood Sweat & Tears and other
“all-timers,” as he so often put it.
“I signed Patti Smith, the great Renaissance woman ... I signed Lou Reed
... I signed the Grateful Dead,” he proudly touted in an interview with
The Associated Press in 1999.
He also signed the up-and-coming producer Sean “Diddy” Combs, whose Bad
Boy Records under Davis scored huge hits, most notably with Notorious
B.I.G., long before Diddy landed in prison.
An exec who built lifelong careers
Davis also kept veterans relevant. Aretha Franklin flourished in her
later years at Arista as did Luther Vandross at another Davis label, J
Records.
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Barry Manilow, from left, Carly Simon and Clive Davis arrive at the
2016 Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Feb.
14, 2016. (Photo by John Salangsang/Invision/AP, File)
 It was Davis who conceived of the
1999 album “Supernatural,” pairing guitar god Santana with some of
the day’s hottest talents to win eight Grammys. And he persuaded
middle-aged rocker Rod Stewart to try standards from “The Great
American Songbook.” That album, released in 2003, sold millions and
was so successful it spawned four titles in all.
His collaborators didn’t always agree — Davis won a bitter fight
with producer David Foster over Houston’s all-time hit, a cover of
Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” — and the song was published
with its iconic a cappella intro.
And Manilow strongly objected to recording “I Write the Songs” — a
song he didn’t write — but it too became a signature hit. “He’s just
brilliant at picking ideas he thinks the public will connect,” raved
Manilow.
But not an infallible figure
Columbia fired Davis in 1973, accusing him of mismanaging funds.
Davis pleaded guilty to tax evasion and had to pay a $10,000 fine,
but said Columbia funded Arista to resolve the dispute. That label
became another huge success, with country superstars Brooks & Dunn,
sassy R&B group TLC, Babyface, Houston, Franklin and others.
Arista also signed Milli Vanilli, the male pop duo that was stripped
of its best new artist Grammy after revealing they were lip-syncing
their songs.
In 1999, Arista’s parent company BMG Entertainment, a division of
German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, wanted him to retire. He was
ousted despite support from his superstar roster. But BMG then
helped Davis launch J Records, where he found his next star in Keys,
a piano-playing singer-songwriter whose powerful pipes and dramatic
R&B songs would sell millions of Grammy-winning albums.
Davis later ran BMG’s U.S. division, guiding “American Idol” winners
to platinum albums. Some disagreed with his directions — Clarkson
went her own way with “My December” — but she apologized after the
album flopped. Davis was serving as worldwide chief creative officer
at Sony Music Entertainment at his death.
He was married twice, and in his memoir, confirmed he was bisexual
and living with a man.
His family — including four children — shared a loving statement on
Monday, saying they “celebrate not only a towering figure whose
influence changed music forever, but the man who led our family with
grace, generosity, and kindness.”
___
Former AP writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody was the main writer of this
obituary.
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