Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives

Freedom's just another word For nothing left to lose Nothin' That's all that Bobby left me Yeah And feelin' good Was easy, Lord Bobby sang the blues Feelin' good Was good enough for me Good enough for me And Bobby McGee And it's just like the ocean Under the moon It's the same as the emotion That I get from you You got the kind of lovin' That can be so smooth yeah Give me your heart Make it real Or else forget about it Let's not forget about it Looks like we made it We left each other On the way To another love Looks like we made it Or I thought so till today People have the power To dream People have the power To love The power to dream To rule To wrestle the world From fools I will feel I will feel I will be free I will be I will be free [applause, cheering] No.

I'm-- I'm not like him.

He is much...

He's much better with artists than I am, I've gotta tell you.

Um... And his incredible attention to detail, second to none.

But look, deep down, we all wanted to be Clive Davis, you know, and have that track record, that ability to turn an artist into a superstar.

You know, that's quite unique.

I've been his competitor, I've been his friend.

And, it's all about one thing: Is the song good enough?

Is the vocal good enough?

Is it exciting enough?

And that's what he does.

That's how he gets off.

Most-- [chuckles] You know, most people, as executives, get a chance to make it for maybe a soundtrack for a period of time.

Like, you talking about the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s... 2000s.

He's made the soundtrack you know, for our lives.

[Earth, Wind & Fire: "Shining Star"] [female reporter] We're less than 24 hours away from music's biggest night.

But tonight, the who's who of the music world all at the most prestigious Grammy party, hosted by legendary music producer, Clive Davis.

He's one of the few surviving music moguls from the 1960s.

[female reporter 2] It's a story that spans four decades and countless chart-topping hits.

Clive has been around for a while.

You know that he discovered Earth Wind & Fire?

Not the band, the elements.

As always, we're still doing this.

[man] There's a certain dopamine release that comes from having a hit record.

And, you know, Clive's a hit addict.

Here he is: the man with the golden ears.

The one, the only, Mr. Clive Davis!

[applause, cheering] Clive's Grammy parties... kinda more than just a party.

You know, it's kind of a historical event.

You better think Think Think about what you're trying To do to me - Think - Think, think Let your mind go Let yourself be free Oh, freedom Freedom [Kenny Gamble]The Grammy party, that's bigger than the Grammys.

You know, trying to get a ticket to that is not easy.

[female reporter] For Maroon 5, a chance of a lifetime, to be launched by one of music's top star-makers.

This love has taken its toll On me, she said goodbye Too many times before That party is a rite of passage.

You haven't made it in this business until you're invited to that party.

What you gonna say?

Pass the Courvoisier - We gonna tell that brother - Pass the Courvoisier Everyone from all walks of life in the same room.

But, of course, music brings everyone together.

It ain't me It ain't me I ain't no millionaire's son It ain't me It ain't me I ain't no fortunate one Whoo!

I'm looking in this audience right now, and I have to bow in the presence of greatness.

This will be oh!

You and me yeah!

Yes, siree, eternally Huggin' and squeezin' and kissin' and pleasin' Together forever Through rain or whatever Yeah, yeah, yeah There is nobody who can get the whole industry together, but Clive Davis.

[applause, cheering] This night never ceases to be special.

And it is gonna be really special tonight.

If you're willing to... take a musical journey with me.

[TV jingle playing] It's Make Believe Ballroom time Put all your cares away [Davis] I grew up with the radio.

A lot of listening to the Make Believe Ballroom.

So I did know the songs of the day, but never thought of it as a profession.

The emphasis in Jewish families that did not have any money was that you gotta be a lawyer, or you gotta be a doctor.

I was gonna be a lawyer, with no clue what being a lawyer meant, what it entailed.

You were gonna be a lawyer.

I applied for and got a scholarship to NYU.

But my mother died as my second year of college was beginning.

My world was turned topsy-turvy.

The closest person in my life was my mother.

And my father died within that following year.

The word orphan, you know, that some other people applied to me, I couldn't believe that that word was, um, being applied to myself.

[Anthony DeCurtis] I think the death of Clive's parents when he was young is one reason why Clive works so hard.

You know, if anything goes, it's not gonna be because he didn't make the strongest effort to make sure that it stayed.

[woman] Uh, 1950.

[Miles Davis: "All Blues"] [Steve Jacobson] He was very smart in school.

Smarter than I was.

And, he parlayed that into a wonderful job right after school.

[Davis] I was working at one of the top law firms in the city.

Until one day, I get a call from one of my clients, the chief attorney for Columbia Records.

And he said, "We have a two-man legal department.

I'm not happy with my number two man.

Within six months to a year, the number two man will be the chief lawyer for Columbia Records.

That's what I offer you."

I knew nothing about music.

I knew nothing about what a wave it made.

But I did seize that opportunity.

Five years later, Goddard Lieberson, the president of Columbia Records, calls me into his office, and he said, "I would like you to leave the law, and become head of the Musical Instruments Division.

All the people at Fender Guitars, at Leslie Speakers, at Steinway Piano, they'll report to you."

I went home that night, gave great thought to it, and I said, "You know, I'm gonna turn it down."

The next morning, there's a call from Goddard, and he said, "Clive, there's been a change of plans."

He said, "Norman Adler really wants to move to La Jolla, I'm gonna make him Head of The Musical Instruments Division.

And you'll be the new head of Columbia Records."

That's how I got in the record business.

Moon River Wider than a mile [applause] [Davis] At that time, Columbia was preeminent in classical music.

They were preeminent in Broadway shows.

And in middle-of-the-road music, with Andy Williams, and Barbra Streisand, Vikki Carr, Tony Bennett.

They were not interested in rock 'n' roll.

Please, don't just sit there.

Come on and sing.

Five foot two, eyes of blue In fact, Mitch Miller, the famed Mitch Miller, who had his own TV show and was the A&R man par excellence at Columbia Records.

He believed that rock was a passing phenomenon, and that it was ephemeral, and it would disappear.

[DeCurtis] Mitch Miller was a real powerhouse at Columbia, and very famously, couldn't stand rock 'n' roll.

And, as often happens, that kind of permeated the entire company.

There's two kinds of music: good and bad.

And the rest is all ********.

Has anybody seen my gal?

[Davis] And it was at this point that Lou Adler asked me to go to the Monterey Pop Festival, when my life would be changed forever.

[Scott McKenzie: "San Francisco"] If you're going To San Francisco Be sure to wear Some flowers in your hair [Davis] I was blown away.

I had never seen any hint of the cultural social revolution coming out of Haight-Ashbury.

And I was there, with white pants and a tennis sweater.

So I was the one that looked weird.

[Janis Joplin: "Ball and Chain"] The second artist that I saw that first afternoon was Big Brother and the Holding Company.

No mention as to who the lead singer would be.

Oh-oh-oh Hon, tell me why Does everything go wrong?

Baby [Davis] As soon as Janis Joplin came on stage, I mean, she was hypnotic.

Well, here you gone today And I want to love you I want to love you For so long Now these years later, it sounds almost clich, but I felt my spine tingle and my arms vibrate.

Hon, oh, this can't be Oh, b-b-b-b-baby A love in vain [mouthing] Wow.

[Davis] I was just overcome with emotion.

And I was saying, you know, this isn't just a social revolution.

This is a musical revolution.

Oh, tell me why Oh, people, tell me why love Honey, why love is like Well, it's like A ball and... And a chain [Davis] This is the night I signed Janis Joplin.

She was the first artist I ever signed.

I did dig it the first time I heard it.

I also liked it the other way.

[Lou Adler] He took those meetings right away.

And he had to prove to them, beyond the way that he looked and beyond the history of those record companies, that CBS Columbia was a place where they could feel comfortable.

Last night James passed out in the Chelsea lobby.

[Davis] You've been drinking a little too much, James.

[Davis] It was very corporate for her.

And she said, "You know, this is the biggest moment in my life.

You're signing, I'm signing with my group.

Let's go to bed together."

Summertime, time, time I said, "It's a compliment, but, we're not gonna mix business with pleasure."

[Adler] He seemed a little naive, as far as artist relations.

But, he portrayed an honest person.

And that particular time period, everyone was looking for the truth.

Take another little piece Of my heart now, baby Take it Take another little piece Of my heart now, baby [DeCurtis] The world that Columbia Records represented in the mid-'60s was over.

You know you got it, child If it makes you feel good [DeCurtis] Clive was not the kind of guy who would sit there and bemoan that and try to beat that dead horse.

I mean, he was somebody that was like, what is the future gonna be?

And it was very clear, at that point, to him, that the future was gonna be rock 'n' roll.

And so, you know, he set out on a mission to really make that happen.

One, two, three, four!

One, two, three, four!

[playing up-tempo music] [Davis] Dazzled by what I had seen at Monterey, in a matter of 12 to 24 months, I signed The Electric Flag.

Someone is waiting I signed Blood, Sweat & Tears.

Spinnin' wheel Spinnin' true And Chicago.

Twenty-five or six to four Oh, yeah!

It was titillating, yes.

Nerve-racking, yes.

My God, I'm actually signing artists.

I never thought I would do it.

I never thought that was my destiny.

[phone ringing] I remember getting this call, saying Bill Graham wants you to come to the Fillmore in San Francisco.

He's got a group that he thinks is fabulous.

[Carlos Santana] Everybody was coming to coo us.

Atlantic and, of course, Columbia and Elektra.

All kinds of record companies.

Bill Graham held a couple of auditions, one with Clive Davis and one with Ahmet Ertegun.

I wanted to be with Clive in CBS because I saw a poster for Christmas, and it had Paul Simon, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Electric Flag.

It had everybody in it.

But, the whole band wanted to go with Atlantic.

So, I literally played horrible for Ahmet Ertegun.

And the band was so pissed off at me.

"What are you doing?"

However, when Clive was there, I remember just playing my heart out.

[Santana: "Jungle Strut"] I just-- I just felt that, you know-- I felt that there was something of a chemistry with him.

[Davis] I had been told that one or two of my major competitors had seen them and didn't sign them.

But I said, you just gotta trust this instinct that you have, this feeling that you have.

You've got to stand or fall on whether you end up having ears or not.

[ Santana: "Oye Como Va"] It was only the building of a track record that it became evident that I might have a natural gift that I never knew I had.

Got a black magic woman [Ahmet Ertegun] In the late '60s, it was Clive who brought Columbia fully into the rock world.

And on more than one occasion, we found ourselves in competition for a great new act.

[Moby Grape: "Lazy Me"] And both Clive and I were after a group called Moby Grape.

And they said, "Look, we're gonna sign with you, but we promised Clive one last meeting."

I said, "Don't sign anything, and call me."

And at ten o'clock at night I get a phone call.

"We got great news for you: we signed with Clive."

I said, "What do you mean, you signed with Clive?

You promised me--" "You're gonna be very happy."

I said, "Why?"

They said, "Well you know how you really dig our music?

Well Clive has agreed that you can come in and listen in the studio, while we make..." [laughter, applause] "while we make the album."

And I said, "Oh, ****!"

[laughter, applause] [Abe Somer] He has a certain kind of child-like enthusiasm.

If you're representing talent, or are talent itself, that's the kind of person you want to deal with.

You don't want to deal with somebody who sees everything in terms of dollars and cents.

I'm not saying he didn't understand the economics of the music business, because he did better than anybody I know, but he also brought that other element, which is artistic rapprochement with the talent.

[Paul Simon] Clive came in right in and had a special relationship, I think, with Simon and Garfunkel.

Personally, I felt friendship.

I thought he was a smart guy.

I didn't know what his musical abilities were because he was coming out of law.

But the big surprise of Clive Davis is that he became you know, a musical... a musical force in the record business.

[Davis] I got a call one day, they were ready with their next album.

They were debating what'll be the single.

What'll be the single?

[Simon] I said, it's probably "Cecilia."

and Clive said, "No, it has to be 'Bridge over Troubled Water.'"

"But Clive, you sure?

We don't hear anything that soft on the radio.

When you're weary When you're weary "You can't get away with that."

Clive said, "Watch, we're gonna get away with it."

When tears are in...

This is a great moment in my life 'cause it's about boldness.

He knows when music is good, but better than good.

[Doug Morris] Everyone thinks they can pick a hit song.

Everyone thinks they know a great artist.

There are just a few people who really understand it.

And Clive is the epitome of that person.

I'd been up to Columbia and had played for John Hammond, and John said, "Gee, I love you, but you gotta play for Clive."

And I went in, and I sat down, and played the songs.

And this was, like, the biggest days of my life.

[laughs] We went in, we did the record and sent it over to him.

And he sent it back.

[laughs] He sent it back and he says, "There's no singles.

There's no singles on the record."

And I said, "Well, you know, that's probably true, you know."

And I went down to the beach and I wrote, "Blinded by the Light."

And "Spirit in the Night."

So that was a good call.

"And she was blinded by the light, cut loose like a goose."

What a great phrase that is.

There was a film of Clive, reciting the lyrics to "Blinded by the Light," which was sent out to all the branch offices.

"And some fresh-sown moonstone was messin' with his frozen zone... to remind him of the feeling of romance."

This goes on for about four or five minutes.

And it impressed me as a tremendous personal commitment to my own career, but helped explain why there were both words and music on the record.

And she was blinded By the light Oh, cut loose like a goose Another runner in the night Blinded by the light "Mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun.

Oh, but mama, that's where the fun is."

Bruce... Springsteen.

Nineteen seventy-one We all heard The starter's gun New York is such a pity... [Steven Tyler] Clive Davis took me aside, put his arm around me, and said, "You're gonna be a big star.

And we're gonna sign you up, and you're gonna have lots of money.

And your career is gonna explode."

And then Old Clive Davis said Surely gonna make us a star Think about this: from an artist's perspective, I never felt ignored.

Do you know how many artists he had to work with?

How many... How much he had to do, in a day's work?

[Miles Davis: "All Blues"] No one felt left out.

[Davis] I remember the great Miles Davis coming to see me.

And saying to me, "Why are you signing these *******..." He used the word "*******," "young white guys... who are stealing my chops, and they're selling millions of albums."

And he really was angry.

Wanted off the label.

I said, "Miles, to move into this new world of contemporary pop music, you're gonna have to let me book you at the Fillmore Easts and Wests of the world.

You're gonna have to play colleges, you're gonna have to play to this young rock audience.

And I know in my heart you're gonna learn from the experience.

You're gonna adapt whatever your genius creates.

You're gonna be affected by this."

[Miles Davis: "Directions #2"] And it did affect him.

So that his follow up album was Bitches Brew.

And that broke through.

And so I get this big package.

And I open it up.

And it's an outfit.

And saying, "I want you to wear this to this gig at The Fillmore."

And he was shocked that I came to the concert in it.

We took pictures, and Cash Box put that on its cover, of me and Miles.

I think Clive Davis... he knows how to spot talent.

Yeah.

He knows how to give that talent... room.

To breathe, right.

You know, to breathe.

Yeah.

And he did that with Huff and myself.

[Davis] I said, "How do we get into R&B music?"

And I made a deal with Gamble and Huff and financed Philadelphia International.

People all over the world Day by day Join in Join Start a love train Love train The O'Jays, with all their hits.

Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, featuring Teddy Pendergrass.

If you don't know me by now If you don't "Me and Mrs. Jones" by Billy Paul.

Mrs. Jones Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones... One hit after another.

We got a thing...

Leading me to make my first move.

And the first orders that I signed, in that connection, was Earth Wind & Fire.

Do you remember?

We became a major factor in R&B music.

Love was changing the minds of pretenders While chasing The clouds away [DeCurtis] You know, he had a very three-dimensional sense of what the music industry could become.

There suddenly were like, millions and millions of young people who love this music.

You know, they weren't necessarily being served, and along came someone like Clive Davis or Ahmet Ertegun who kinda got that.

And, you know, they built the music business.

[Davis] The last artist that I signed to Columbia was an artist that I think is gonna happen in a very, very big way.

I got into him about a year and a half-- Before he was in another label, the Family records label.

I'm talking Billy Joel.

It's nine o'clock On a Saturday The regular crowd Shuffles in [DeCurtis] You know, because of the signings that Clive made, Columbia really became, you know, the premier label in the country.

[Davis] Our market share zoomed up.

We went from third place to first place.

We were on fire.

Columbia Records to me became the biggest and best record company in the world.

They had a classical department, a country department, an R&B department-- They were in every aspect of the music business.

[Gordy] He may have been a lawyer before he got into music, but when he got into music, he was a music man.

I mean, a real music man.

[whistle blowing] [Davis] I always worried.

I worried in school.

Never assumed because I might've had an A average that I would get an A. I would worry.

[DeCurtis] I think Clive took a very specific lesson from the death of his parents.

The idea that, you know, you could rise to these heights and have that just suddenly disappear was a kind of deep-seated fear for him, that unbelievably came true in the world.

[Davis] It was 1973.

Everything was going great at the label.

When I had a meeting one day with the finance department, and they told me they had uncovered a fraudulent invoice scheme.

[male reporter] The story begins with Pat Falcone, a convicted heroin smuggler with ties to a large New York mafia family.

Federal agents found documents in his apartment that were traced to David Wynshaw, a CBS Records executive.

[Davis] I was then told that Dave Wynshaw had submitted fraudulent invoices, involving myself, and forged my signature.

We investigated everything.

And I was cleared, I was never implicated.

He never claimed that I knew anything, which I did not.

To get a lower prison sentence, Dave came up with the allegation that there was payola and/or drugola involved in the record industry, including Columbia Records.

Well, that made the matter enormously significant, to anybody, any company, especially CBS, with broadcast licenses from the federal government, the fear of what the repercussion might be.

He was working for this uptight CBS company, whose television network was more important to them than anything with the music.

They had relationships in Washington and they had to be very careful.

If there was a whiff of a scandal, somebody will dig into it and blow up the company.

And so they dumped him.

Other than the death of my mother, it was the biggest shock of my life.

[Simon] He had to leave the building on the same day that he was fired.

They had a security guard to escort him out.

It was in all the papers.

It really made him sound like he was a... a crooked guy, and he wasn't.

[sniffles] It was terrible.

It was...

It was a shock, to us.

[Fred Davis] It was, uh, sudden.

And, you know, it was...

It was public.

All I heard about was how well everything was, and the next day, it all ends.

This is the New York headquarters of the Columbia Broadcasting System, America's biggest radio and television network, and the country's biggest record producer.

[Fred Davis] Within 24 hours, your dad's on the local news, the front page of the New York Times, and then home.

Before he was fired, Davis was earning over 300,000 dollars a year, and was regarded as a genius in the record industry.

[Simon] That was a shameful chapter in Columbia's history, in my opinion.

It was like a public shaming over... ...nothing.

[DeCurtis] There was a sense in which Clive was being punished for, like, an industry that kind of had gotten uppity.

And there was an element of the media coverage that just assumed that everybody was guilty, that it was all corrupt.

And they had everything but evidence.

For at least a two or three year period of time, it was a witch hunt.

[DeCurtis] He was the big name.

He was the face of the industry at that point.

He became the person that-- "Well, we got Clive Davis."

And they didn't have Clive Davis.

They came up with nothing.

As Dave Marsh said, in a big Rolling Stone article, "What a bust."

What industry could take this kind of intense laser beam investigation, and thorough research, and come up so empty-handed?

So the judge in this case, his name was Thomas P. Griesa, an exact quote from his decision.

"I have reviewed the press articles going back some three years, and they are appalling in the innuendo and direct attempts to connect Mr. Davis with crimes with which he never was indicted, and to say nothing of never having been convicted.

I have never had a case where this situation has existed, at least in anything like the degree which it exists here."

You know, when you get the vindication, you really don't enjoy it fully, because that doesn't quite get the headlines anything near... the headlines that the accusations, that the speculation got.

And that hurt.

And it still hurts.

Clive ended up, I mean, pleading guilty to, like, a very minor charge about, you know, expenses on a vacation.

It was like a couple of grand, I think.

And... you know, that was the end of that.

That's what all of that amounted to.

It's a story that stayed with me.

I mean, maybe more than almost anything else in the book.

But... because Clive pleaded guilty to, you know, this charge about his expenses, there was a subsequent impact which was, you know, he would have to apply for the bar again.

And, who cares?

You know, Clive never had any interest in practicing law again.

He was, you know, just astonishingly successful as the president of a record company.

But in the mid-'90s, when I saw the numbers, and Clive was making tens of millions of dollars every year, he would go home, every night, and study for the bar exam.

And then went and took the test and passed it and got his law license back.

That's how much this meant to him.

That, you know, 30 years later, it was still enough on his mind for him to do something like that.

You know, I don't think he's ever really gotten over it.

[Davis] Even in the midst of the innuendo, I had gotten offers from a number of people.

Alan Hirschfield came along with great enthusiasm, offering me a new company that he would set up with me.

The term, "Arista," which is known in the New York area where I live, was the name of a high school honorary society of all high schools in the secondary school area of New York.

So I felt that it was both personal and yet it was also synonymous with something that was first class.

Alan put in ten million dollars in cash.

And I could pick any artist from the previous company that Columbia Pictures owned, Bell Records.

In principle, kept two.

They were not known.

Each had one album out before.

Neither was successful with that first album.

[Barry Manilow] I had done an album, my first album, for Bell Records, which sold five copies, when there was a knock on my trailer door.

And it was Clive.

And he shook my hand and he said, "Welcome to Arista Records."

And it was the beginning of a career for me that I never, ever imagined.

But he said, "You need a hit single."

And then, this messenger arrived with a package from Clive.

He said, "I think this might be it."

And it was a song called "Brandy."

Oh, Brandy Well, you came And you gave without takin' He was pretty shocked.

"You mean, you think I should record... an outside song?"

He said to me, "I'm a composer.

Yes, I arrange, yes I sing, yes I've done commercials, but--" I said, "You know, when you're a pop artist, you need hits.

And in going through your album, I don't think you've got a first single.

I don't-- You need a first single."

It was a pretty melody.

Only I slowed it down, we slowed it down, made it-- 'Cause it was like... I remember all my life Oh yeah.

Raining down as cold as ice That's how the demo went, you know?

And, it was very nice.

But I suggested to him at the recording session, "Now, why don't we do it like... -[playing slower melody] -...really easy, you know?"

And he sat there.

I remember him sitting in the recording studio like...

So ladies and gentlemen, the newest star for America, Mr. Barry Manilow.

Oh, Mandy Well, you came And you gave without takin' But I sent you away Oh, Mandy [Davis] Became the first record out on Arista... and it went straight to number one.

You know, when you start a company, from scratch, so to speak, with an artist such as Barry Manilow who sells millions of albums, we have become in a three-and-a-half year period of time, the sixth largest record company in the United States.

Don't cry out loud [Davis] We've had gold albums from Melissa Manchester and The Outlaws.

We've had platinum albums from Alan Parsons, with I Robot.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y, night!

We have the Bay City Rollers.

And I've attracted The Kinks, Lou Reed, the Grateful Dead.

Livin' in A rock 'n' roll fantasy [Bob Weir] Clive was the one suit that we weren't distrustful of.

He had a reputation for, you know, having the ear, you know?

The golden ear.

We used to play for acid Now we play for Clive Clive came in there, and, I wouldn't necessarily say it was overnight, but, in a very, very short period of time, all of a sudden, Arista became a very competitive label.

All by myself Using Columbia as a model, I wanted Arista to be in every area of music.

I said what's the word?

Tell me brother Have you heard From Johannesburg?

[Davis] There was Gil Scott-Heron, in a major sense, the first rapper.

The revolution Will not be televised The revolution will not Be brought to you by Xerox In four parts without Commercial interruption And he represented, you know, that part of New York that I associate Arista with.

We were a New York label.

We were so much in the forefront, of the hip, happening cultural explosion that was taking place in New York.

We had the only Saturday Night Live comedy album.

If Lily Tomlin was doing her heralded Broadway Show, we recorded it.

So we were very much in the center of New York life.

[Patti Smith] You know, someone like me, who is so irreverent, unskilled, and, you know, quite the diamond in the rough, might seem like an odd choice for Clive.

But I've learned through the years that Clive really has a weakness for artists.

Jesus died For somebody's sins But not mine [Davis] She became my favorite.

What can I say?

You can see the spit coming down...

I don't mean to paint an unflattering image, but-- you're dealing with the real thing.

No artifice here.

No, "Is my make-up in the right place?"

She was there, tearing your heart out, stimulating your mind.

Because the night Belongs to lovers Because the night Belongs to lust [Jimmy Iovine] "Because the Night" was the first record I ever produced.

Clive was very cool with Patti.

He let her do her thing.

See, that's very important to know.

'Cause a lot of people say he controls a lot.

But Patti, and artists like that, he just lets them do their thing.

[Combs] Clive knows there're two types of artists: There's the self-contained artist, and there's the artist that you have to actually A&R the project.

I say Clive and Berry Gordy are up there as the top two A&Rs of all time history.

It's difficult, in the rock area, to say, "Oh, I'm gonna sign an artist that is gonna explode."

So I began for the first time, really meeting and beginning relationships with what we call music publishers who sign writers.

And you play the material of the artist and you say, "I need hit songs."

Artists always have their own album cuts.

I need hit songs.

We do the full chorus similar to the first time it appears, rather than what it was the second.

And that's it.

And I think it's another great Jim Steinman song.

[Simon] Clive was A&R, which stands for "artist and repertoire."

He would take an artist, and take a song, and say, "You should do this song."

I mean, that's what happened when he went to Arista.

I write the songs that make the whole world sing [Manilow] Every song he submitted to me has been right on the money.

He showed me "I Write the Songs" and he showed me "Looks Like We Made It" and "Weekend in New England" and this newest one "Can't Smile Without You."

And every time he submits one, I say, "I don't think that's a good song at all.

I think you're crazy."

And he's always right.

You know I can't smile without you [Manilow] Clive comes from his heart.

Every time Clive said, "This is a hit record," it moved him.

And that's what happened to the audiences.

If I got it right, it moved you.

When will our eyes meet?

When can I touch you?

[Davis] As much as his gratitude was, for the fact that every song I was submitting turned out to be a big hit and a signature copyright... there was some element of it which bothered him.

And he very candidly looked at me, and he said, "Clive, I love what you're doing, but it's so different from my dream.

My dream, all my life, I was a composer.

My dream, all my life, is I'm an arranger.

I'm a musician.

And you have turned me into Andy Williams."

And I said, "Pop artists need a continuity of hits.

Otherwise the public, if they don't hear you on the radio, they don't know that you're out with a new release."

So we both had the satisfaction, because from the songs, Barry had been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

And the very next year, he asked me to present him with the music society's biggest award, and that is the Ella Award.

It goes to the great singers, like Sinatra, like Tony Bennett, like Johnny Mathis.

So that sums up, you know, where he can have his satisfaction, as a writer.

And I can have my satisfaction of always viewing him as a great interpretive performer.

And that's why he sells out stadiums to this very day, all over the world.

I've been up, down Trying to get The feeling again He would give me two songs on each album, because I built up so many songs... with his quota of two an album... that I had a backlog.

I had all these songs.

I should be able to launch another career.

And I couldn't do it with another male, so I had to look for a female.

What great voice... was not recording these days?

But should be recording these days?

I know I'll never Love this way again [Dionne Warwick] I happened to be doing a TV show that he also was doing, the Dinah Shore show.

And he asked was I recording.

And I said, "Uh, you know, I think I...

I've probably had it with recording at this point in time."

And he says, "Well, let me tell you one thing, young lady."

He said it just like that.

He said, "You may be ready to give the industry up, but the industry is not ready to give you up."

Deja vu Could you be the dream that I once knew [Davis] And so I signed her, this past year.

She gave us her first album.

We find that now it's platinum.

Why do you have to be A heartbreaker?

[Neil Portnow] Because of Clive's expertise in matching great songs with great artists, he has that rare ability to take great, extraordinary artists, whose careers may have languished for one reason or another, and just brings them back stronger than ever.

Hello.

[Davis] The Dionne success led to a relationshi with Aretha Franklin.

She was no longer working with Jerry Wexler, and her recent records had not made it.

She called me, and we met.

He came out to Los Angeles, mm-hmm, in '79.

To my home out in Encino.

He had the reputation of one of the great record men at that time.

And of course, now the greatest record man of all time.

We goin' riding On the freeway of love Wind's against our backs [Davis] Because she was already a national treasure by the time she and I met, my job was to come up with those songs where she can show what she does like nobody else can do.

- Knew you were waiting - I did Knew you were waiting For me, yeah I didn't falter Oh, yeah [Franklin] I really felt appreciated, genuinely, and I said, "This is who I'm gonna sign with."

Sisters are doin' it For themselves And 40 years later-- no, 20 years later, I said, "You made the right decision."

"You made the right decision."

I'm all out of love I'm so lost without you He feels what's gonna be popular.

Believing for so long Come dancin' [Manilow] Whether it's an artist, a song, a record, an arrangement... Why not come dancin'?

It's only natural He just says, "That one!"

Kenny G. Who would have ever thought that a solo sax player would be so successful?

But that's Clive.

He just says, "That one!"

[playing intricate melody] All day long.

That's all I do.

[Kenny G] I started off playing with a band called Jeff Lorber Fusion.

So that's how I got introduced to Clive.

Five years later is when he said, "Do you think Kenny would want to make his own solo records?"

Got Kenny G's albums, including the brand new album, Gravity.

He might not have been the greatest jazz saxophone player, but those pop melodies, those notes that he hit, the looks that he had... he could be a star.

[Kenny G: "Songbird"] But these were the days when there was no radio stations playing instrumental music.

There wasn't any.

Clive Davis, this is where he really stepped in.

He starts writing hand-written letters to the radio programmers around the country to play "Songbird" on pop radio.

And that's what really started my career.

I mean, you know, 60, 70 million albums later, he's by far the biggest-selling instrumentalist of all time.

[Kenny G] Okay, so we sold five million on Duotones , five million on Silhouette .

Then the live record came out, that sold four or five million.

Now Breathless comes out, that sells 12 million.

Clive says, "Maybe you should do a Christmas record."

I said, "Clive, I'm Jewish.

Come on."

He goes, "Okay, Irving Berlin wrote 'White Christmas.'

Jewish.

I'm Jewish.

Do a Christmas record."

["White Christmas" playing] So I do this 11-song Christmas record.

Clive goes, "Needs a vocal.

Not just an instrumental."

I said, "Clive, that's the whole point.

I want it to be an instrumental so that it plays from the beginning to the end with one theme."

He goes, "Okay.

Here's the thing.

As your--" He would call himself-- this is his words-- "I'm your friendly provocateur.

But it's your career.

In my opinion, you do this, it's a serious career mistake.

But I'm-- But it's your career."

That's how he would always do it.

He says, "You're gonna blow your whole career, but it's your decision."

He goes, "All right.

Put it out."

And it SoundScan's the number one Christmas record in the history of music.

So I said, "Clive, can I just say something to you?"

And he goes, "Of course, you're family."

I said, "Clive, can you look at me now and say that I was right about the Christmas record?"

He goes, "No, it would have sold a lot more if you had listened to me."

[applause] [man] What do you look for in an artist?

[Davis] Well you look for originality.

You never know where you're gonna find them, really.

But, when you see them, when they have that spark of originality, when they have that spark of... whether it be as a performer, or whether it be as a writer, you just know you're in the presence of somebody special.

She's how old?

Nineteen?

This girl is 19 years old.

She also happens to be a model.

Yes she is.

She's a beautiful girl.

And, her poise doesn't hurt.

But it's her natural charm.

I mean, you either got it or you don't have it.

She's got it.

She got it.

Wait'll you hear her.

Here's Whitney Houston.

[applause] When I think of home I think of a place Where there's love Overflowing [Davis] Jerry Griffith, an A&R man that worked for me at Arista, told me that he had seen a young female performer that he thought was very special.

[Whitney Houston] I started singing professionally at 12, with my mom doing background sessions, here in the city, and then eventually singing with her in the nightclub.

And that kind of thing.

[Davis] So I went down to a club called Sweetwater's to see her.

And I was floored.

One of her songs was "The Greatest Love of All."

She found more meaning in this song than I believe that the composers knew were there.

Makes it all so clean [Houston] My mother always told me to know what I was singing about, and to be able to feel everything that you're singing, or it would never come across.

[Davis] I knew that there was competition, that there were one or two labels that were very interested.

But I definitely got the feeling that this was a special audition for them.

[Pat Houston] A few people were also interested in Whitney, but Cissy felt that Whitney would be in better care with Clive.

And that's where the connection started, right there at Sweetwater's.

And I've learned That we must Look inside our hearts To find Yeah, we gotta find A world of love Like yours, like mine Like home [applause, cheering] Yay!

You won't forget that name: Whitney Houston.

[Jim Budman] I first met Clive in 1984.

Hello there.

We would meet in the office.

And he would always be behind his desk, playing music.

That was the period where he was just launching Whitney.

And he was very excited about it.

There's a boy I know He's the one I dream of [Davis] After Merv Griffin , we had really good buzz, really good word-of-mouth.

But I know that it's material that's so key.

So I held a New York showcase and I held a Los Angeles showcase, and invited the most successful songwriters in the business.

[male report The gathering was a Davis innovation to introduce one of his newest singers: Whitney Houston.

How will I know If he really loves me?

[Davis] And from that process, they would submit their best, top-drawer, first-rate material to us.

[Houston] I remember Clive calling me and telling me to come to his office.

That he needed to see me and he needed to play some music for me.

Well, in my mind I was like, "Why don't you just send me the tapes?"

[chuckles] No.

No.

"No, I have to be here with you.

I have to feel you.

And you have to feel me."

That was my first lesson.

How will I know?

How will I know?

How will I know?

[Davis] This demo that I'm gonna play for you... this, at the time, could have been done by Olivia Newton-John.

It would've been... somewhat surface, like pop.

Probably a hit record.

But I knew and heard in my head... that with a stronger beat... that the way that Whitney, with her vocal genius, it won't be "I wanna dance with somebody," it'll sound like, "I wanna go to bed with somebody."

It's gonna have far more heat.

It's gonna have far more sensuality.

And it's not gonna be... this very pop-ish record, 'cause we're gonna give it a tougher bottom.

So this is the way the demo sounded.

I've done all right up 'til now It's the light of day That shows me how And when the night falls Loneliness calls Oh, I wanna dance with somebody I wanna feel the heat With somebody [song fades] So, you don't feel the heat with somebody.

But you do feel, "I want to dance with somebody."

Somewhat surface, like very accessible.

Very pop-y in nature.

No question, Olivia would have had a hit with it.

But Whitney... had to get it played on R&B stations.

Urban stations.

Whoo!

Oh, I wanna dance With somebody I wanna feel the heat With somebody [Davis] She broke every format: Top 40, Adult Contemporary, Urban R&B.

She conquered everywhere she went.

I get so emotional, baby Every time I think of you [Davis] I mean, this album ended up selling 22 million copies.

Followed by the second album, that sold 23 million copies.

[Roy Lott] She had seven consecutive number one singles.

It, uh, tied the Beatles' record.

And needless to say, we were up all night doing tequila shots after the seventh one went number one.

I get so emotional, baby And the Grammy goes to, Whitney Houston.

[applause, cheering] [Davis] I would say often, "Are you pinching yourself?"

She'd just look at me and she said, "I'm pinching myself."

She knew.

1987 was a real breakthrough year for us.

It was the "Dance with Somebody" year.

And then you had Aretha and Dionne Warwick, Grateful Dead with, "Touch of Grey" came in that year.

Must be getting early Clocks are running late [Weir] We were impossible to get a decent record out of.

There was always fighting and bickering, and guys coming to the sessions drunk or whatever.

[laughs] But Clive was determined to be the guy who brought some commercial success to the Grateful Dead.

[Don Lenner] During that whole period of time, we had an incredible run.

I will get by We gave the Grateful Dead their first and only top ten hit.

We had incredible success with Ghostbusters.

Who you gonna call?

Ghostbusters!

We had "That's What Friends Are For."

Keep smilin' Keep shining Knowing you can... [woman] The result was an A-number-one smash hit, and nearly two million dollars was raised for the cause.

That's what friends are for Um, there's also the Milli Vanilli story.

[laughing] I was there.

More embarrassment today for the pop group, Milli Vanilli.

[male reporter] It was revealed they never sang on their album.

Girl, you know it's true [Davis] They recorded the album in Germany.

So I didn't meet Milli Vanilli until the album was double platinum.

And indeed... for the fifteenth anniversary show, we put them on Radio City.

[man] Here are Grammy Award winners for Best New Artist, Milli Vanilli.

[applause, cheering] [pop music playing] We had no inkling-- I want to make it very clear-- there was no one that knew at our record company in America.

One of the biggest hits I ever had with Clive was a song called "Blame it On the Rain" by Milli Vanilli.

And I love Milli Vanilli.

I don't care if they didn't sing or whatever.

That album was so great.

It's one of the best pop albums, like, ever.

Blame it on the rain That was fallin, fallin' [Warren] He took that to them and it became, I think, the biggest hit off that album.

Whoever sang it.

Why?

Her batting percentage was incredible.

This is the book I never read These are the words I never said We did not take a million artists on.

To be fair to them.

I know nothing Stays the same But if you were To play the game It will be coming around Again We were either number one or number two during that whole period of time.

I saw the sign And it opened up my eyes I saw the sign [Lenner] We were smaller than these big, gigantic, monolithic record companies, but we were agile and we fought hard and we won.

[applause] [man] You have artists that are good musically, good songwriters, and excellent performers, that never make it and you wonder why.

Sure.

Every artist that I've signed that hasn't made it.

[laughs] There were acts that I believed would break, and never did.

I remember being so proud to introduce The Alpha Band.

One of the lead members was T-Bone Burnett.

He was flanked by this electric violinist, who would go out into the audience and cause a sensation.

But, as in baseball, not every swing leads to a hit.

In the case of the Funky Kings, it was Jack Tempchin, who had written several songs for the Eagles.

But, ultimately, he was not able to write for the new group.

There's gotta be misses.

I didn't sign Meat Loaf.

He was an unlikely figure, visually.

So I passed.

And John Cougar Mellencamp was too close to Bruce Springsteen.

And I had signed, what I thought to be, the real deal.

And of course he was to become one of the great original American rock 'n' roll artists ever.

So I thought, "Okay, you got me."

I'm just playin' a part I ain't got no money That's why every week I bring home every chart record that makes it in any format.

Because someone that's been in the business for a long time, you can go over the hill.

I worry, always worried, will I go over the hill?

Am I going over the hill?

And I come with my satchel every week in the last 20 years and I play those chart records just to see how music is changing.

I decided the early '90s was the time to go into country music.

[DeCurtis] Clive took that model that he found at Columbia Records and set out to cover everything.

And if he didn't know that music himself, he'd find people who knew it.

[Davis] I interviewed six candidates... and I chose Tim DuBois.

Tim had been a songwriter, he had been a producer, and the first artist that he brought me was the great Alan Jackson.

Well we fogged up the windows In my old Chevy I was willin' But she wasn't ready We were able, in an 18 months period, to break not only Alan, but also Brooks and Dunn.

Get down, turn around, Go to town Boot scootin' boogie [DuBois] We went from a cold start to the number two label in Nashville.

It stayed that way all during the '90s.

[Arsenio Hall] Can I ask you one serious question?

Some of-- [Houston] How serious?

Well, the friction at the Soul Train Awards.

-Where does that come from?

-Oh.

For those of you that don't know-- They booed me at Soul Train Awards.

[laughter] In the record business, you've got pop stations, and you've got urban stations.

The urban stations wanted to claim her more.

I think music is music, you know?

I mean, how do I sing more black, or how do I sing... What am I doing that's making me sound white?

I don't understand, you know.

I'm singing music from my heart, from my soul, and that's it.

I'm not exactly sure what singing white is, but I don't think there is more soul to be offered than what you did.

[singing in operatic style] How will I know If he really loves me I don't know.

[laughter] Whitney needed an R&B hit.

And who had the best track record at the time...

It was L.A. and Babyface.

They had had 19 number-one R&B songs and they agreed to do the "I'm Your Baby Tonight" cut.

Whatever you want from me I'm giving you everything I'm your baby tonight [Houston] L.A. and Babyface were so perfect for that.

Because they write the greatest songs to me because they have great grooves.

But they still have storylines, and songs that say something.

[Davis] In the process of delivering and writing and creating "I'm Your Baby Tonight," we got to know each other.

We just got along well.

And I was just very fortunate that they entrusted me with their vision, which was to have their own record company.

Clive was the first guy that took us seriously.

And, you know, wanted to give us that shot.

[L.A. Reid] We were pretty successful as producers, but we didn't know about discovering talent.

[hip-hop playing] [Reid] We moved to Atlanta.

We set up shop, put our flag in the ground, and it started to work.

[Davis] They were forging new territory, and in the way that Berry Gordy found Detroit for Motown Records, they established Atlanta.

Un-break my heart [Babyface] You know, to have Toni Braxton sell eight million on her first album... Don't go chasin' waterfalls TLC selling ten million... Then Usher coming.

In some ways it felt like we were accidentally having huge hits.

[Davis] So after that third album, and after we had been embraced by the urban community... O, say does that star... [Davis] Her version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl is such an all-time classic.

Nobody comes even close.

O'er the land of the free And the home Of the brave [cheering] But, there was something in her that wanted to be a movie star.

I'm going to do a film next year.

Yeah.

I'm gonna do some acting.

I'll be on the silver screen, so... [laughs] [Davis] She had a very good agent, a devoted agent in Nicole David, who helped her locate the role in Bodyguard.

[Nicole David] Originally Clive was really angry about her doing that, and angry with me because I was risking something very precious and very... important to him.

[Davis] Well, right before Christmas one year, I get a call from Nicole.

"I'm gonna send you the first rough cut."

[Mitchell Davis] The first cut came in and we watched it on video and... the movie wasn't good.

Frank tells me you're a singer.

Yeah, that's right.

[Davis] There was so little music in the film.

You didn't know why she needed a bodyguard.

Watching that first cut almost ruined my Christmas vacation.

I came back and I wrote a letter.

And I said, "You can't make her first movie totally a spoken word thriller with one song."

I know that this will be interpreted as, "Here I'm the head of Whitney's record company.

Where's the music, and what will the soundtrack be?"

But I gotta tell you, this movie could be so much greater if we had Whitney be Whitney and do her stuff.

And, fortunately, Kevin Costner responded to that letter.

Don't make me close One more door It was Kevin Costner who asked for more songs.

Don't walk away from me And the movie was transformed.

I have nothing... And it was Kevin Costner who had decided on the Dolly Parton previous hit of "I Will Always Love You"... If I should stay Well, I would... ...who sent it simultaneously to David Foster, Whitney, and me.

And so I'll go I listened, and said, "Wow, that is perfect."

Whitney said the same thing.

David said the exact same thing.

That's how "I Will Always Love You" got in the film.

And I Will always... [Foster] When I mixed "I Will Always Love You," I did a rough mix of it.

I'd sent it to him on a DAT.

I thought, you know, he's gonna make a bunch of changes anyway.

He calls me back, "I love it!

It's perfect!

Don't touch a thing!"

In Clive Davis world this is unheard of.

This never happens.

"I just want to make a couple of changes."

"Don't touch anything, it's just perfect."

So I went in and spent, like, 12 hours.

I tuned the saxophone, I put new guitars on, I did all the stuff that I had wanted to do.

And he heard it, and he said, "I hate it."

And I got really crazy with him.

He started yelling and I started yelling.

And you know, I was kind of a hothead.

There was not an obscenity known to mankind that was not thrown my way.

He said, "David.

I think we should hang up before one of us says something that we're gonna regret."

And I [Davis] Meantime, Warner Bros is saying, "When is the single coming out?

We're ready to distribute the movie."

And so I pushed the button... ...without getting back to David, for that first version that I heard.

Will always Love you I will always... [Foster] He used that DAT that he's carried around all summer in his pocket.

And that got mastered to become the single of the century's greatest love song.

...love you [Mitchell Davis] I think people think about his public persona, the big music man.

I don't think they understand what a family guy he is.

[Doug Davis] You know, he stressed the importance of family.

He was there every weekend.

We would have these, what are now famous, Sunday night dinners.

Vacations, you know, several times a year.

It was very important for him that we each spend time with each other, and not just with him.

[Jacobson] As busy as he was, he's dealing with all this talent, dealing with the corporate structures and the demands on him to make money.

And every Sunday he would have dinner with the kids and the family.

That's not typical of a lot of these guys, you know, operating at that level.

[Davis] In my late 40s, after both my marriages had failed, I opened myself up to the possibility that gender would not be the factor of determining my sexuality.

[Jacobson] I don't find it extraordinary that he's interested in both sexes.

He has no narrowness to him.

He's a capacious person.

Do you hope that bisexuality will be better understood as a result of your honesty?

I honestly do.

I honestly do have that hope that that is the case.

There was an attitude towards bisexuality, pervasive, that you're either gay or you're straight or you're lying.

It's not true.

You don't have to be only one thing or another.

[applause] [DeCurtis] It's funny, the sense of Clive-- you're just kind of always having, you know, a feel for the zeitgeist.

You know, with the discussion of bisexuality, and it was something that really kind of caught the wind of what was-- what was going on in a way that, you know, I didn't necessarily anticipate.

But I think, you know, in some way he understood.

And, I'm not sure he was particularly surprised by the attention that it got.

[chattering, clapping] In this tough business, you can never really rest on your laurels.

If you're an artist, you have to keep at the cutting edge.

You have to come up with hit after hit after hit.

And if you're an executive like me, you have to keep reinventing yourself.

Going from rock... to pop... to urban crossover... to street.

[Davis] It was very special meeting Sean "Puffy" Combs.

He had a very specific vision.

The time had come that Top 40 had to change.

That there was, and he saw, a pending revolution.

[phone ringing] [gasps] A hip-hop revolution.

Just... like... Uniblab, Robotic kickin' flab My flavor be the badder Chitter-chatter Madder than the Mad Hatter You know, one of my big pitches to Clive was that hip-hop is an international... you know, mainstream art form.

And that the records that I was making and the artists that I was putting out, could really take over and change the sound of pop radio.

Hold up, Let's make this official When Puffy kind of articulated his vision for what hip-hop could become, I think to Clive that made a lot of sense.

I mean, that is what happened with rock 'n' roll.

Puffy came up and played for me Craig Mack's, "Flava In Ya Ear."

You won't be arou d Next year My rap's too severe Kickin' mad flava in ya ear And then he played me three or four cuts from an artist that he was grooming.

And to my untrained ear... it was special.

It was all a dream I used to read Word Up magazine Salt 'n' Pepa and Heavy D Up in the limousine Hangin' pictures on my wall Every Saturday, Rap Attack Mr. Magic... [Combs] When I first played Clive my music, nobody had heard what I was working on.

We just talked for hours about music and his knowledge about music.

And hip-hop and the things that I produced.

It was just mind-blowing.

And he understood he was hearing something special.

He knew he was hearing a new sound.

Time to get paid Blow up Like the World Trade... [Davis] So I said this young man has got the goods.

And I made a deal to finance Bad Boy Records.

Every step I take Every move I make [Reid] That range of Kenny G to the Notorious BIG.

That's a distance.

I'll be missin' you Yeah, yeah Thinking of the day... We have seven in the top 30, starting off with Whitney at number one.

[female reporter] Davis's Friday lunch meetings are a chance for his entire management team to sit down with their boss.

[Keith Naftaly] These A&R meetings were super intense.

You would listen to the same things over and over and over again.

You'd listen to six mixes of the same song.

Songs would be dissected.

People would vote on a scale of one to ten-- Really, it was a scale of seven to ten.

[Naftaly] He doesn't show it to a lot of people, but there's a current of insecurity going through there that is... "Wow, if I don't... do the triple, quadruple, septuple check, that... ...it's just gonna come crashing down."

And so the quality control was insane.

And the work hours were... extensive.

I think every person who is really, really successful has a certain amount of fear, which keeps them going.

And I think he has that, too.

[up-tempo music playing] [chuckling] One night Clive said, "We're gonna go see Santana at Radio City," and we were, like...

"Okay."

[Santana] We hadn't had any radio airplay for a long, long time.

Clive came up to see us and he told me, he says, "Carlos, there's two different rings: Playing live, you're ferocious.

You probably knock out most people who are top selling right now.

Live.

But you need some songs."

[Richard Palmese] So Clive announces that he's signing, you know, again, after 20 years or whatever, Carlos Santana.

And we were, like, "Okay."

I mean, Carlos, legendary artist.

But where would his music fit?

[Santana] The commonality that Clive Davis and I have... We have an incredible, powerful muscle.

It's called imagination.

We can see it.

We can imagine it.

And, therefore, we're able to hit it.

[Santana: "Smooth"] Man, it's a hot one [Palmese] Clive's working on the record, he calls me up to his office, and he says, "I wanna play you something."

He plays me, "Smooth."

I fell out of my chair.

I mean, this may have been a 50-year-old Carlos Santana, but the song was as hot as anything on the radio.

My Spanish Harlem Mona Lisa [Davis] There was such speculation.

"Could this be Davis's folly?

Is he acting out of sentiment?"

Well, I hope not.

And if you said, "This life..." I just believed that, with the right material, Santana could sell.

[Santana] I was extremely amazed-- I still am-- just the momentum it picked up.

Once we got it on the radio, it went...

It went bananas.

And it's just like the ocean Under the moon It's the same as... [Palmese] The song went on to be number one and we sold 22 million albums around the world.

Maria, Maria She reminds me of A West Side story [Davis] After "Smooth" broke, after "Maria, Maria" broke, I mean, the album just kept soaring.

And, the Grammy goes to... Supernatural .

Santana.

[Ertegun] Certainly, anyone who can figure out how to sell millions of albums by a rock guitarist in his mid-50s, who doesn't sing a note... -[laughter] -has earned my eternal admiration.

[cheering, applause] [Davis] We were flying high.

The hits we were enjoying that year-- Supernatural, "My Love is Your Love," with Whitney.

I was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by NARAS.

Sales for the year were looming to be in excess of a half billion dollars, bigger than at any time in our history.

Your love is my love And my love is your love And so, I got an invitation to attend dinner from Michael Dornemann and Strauss Zelnick, the two top officers of Bertelsmann, a major German company that had purchased Arista from me.

And I thought I was going there to be warmly congratulated at the peak of my career.

[Charles Goldstuck] It's maybe nine o'clock.

I'm getting ready to pack up and go to dinner, and the phone rings.

It's Clive.

I just hear this voice like I've never heard him before.

We have to meet, we have to meet.

I said, "What's wrong Clive?"

"They want to push me out."

Strauss Zelnick and Michael Dornemann felt that Clive is 66 now, it is time for him to step down.

[Babyface] You know, the reason for Clive supposedly being pushed out was an age thing at that point.

And it made absolutely no sense, because Clive wasn't getting old as it related to music, you know.

Arguably he was getting younger.

[Davis] The real reason was that I was making too much money.

They wanted to stop my earning tens of millions of dollars every year.

And they were trying to come up with a way to cut their burden.

[Morris] It's very often people end up in charge, who really don't understand what the business is all about.

They don't appreciate the amazing talent that these people have.

They're not gonna replace Clive.

When Clive goes, that's the end of that.

[man] Up next, the man at the center of a cutthroat fight in the music business.

He's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

But was just forced out at the record company he founded.

All of a sudden, there was this public outcry.

There was an enormous amount of press.

The fact of the matter is you were too old.

Right?

Wrong.

The fact of the matter is that I knew I was not too old.

Everybody rallied for Clive.

Everybody.

His fiercest competitors rallied for him to not get let go.

If Arista does not have Clive Davis, it will be a very different Arista.

[Grubman] The artists started saying, "How could you do this?"

I can't imagine our industry without Clive Davis.

With all of this crazy geschrein, publicly and privately...

...I get a call from Strauss Zelnick.

"Let's talk."

I like it in the morning The morning's much better Bertelsmann understood we can't have Clive Davis out there competing with us.

[Grubman] So we structure this joint venture by the name of J Records.

Basically he's back in business at BMG, but now he owns half the company.

My calculus was that we're gonna need 150 million dollars to build this business the right way.

A hundred fifty million dollars was much bigger than any label had ever been created.

[man] We are now walking towards the office of Clive Davis.

I went to see Clive, and I said, "Look, Clive, I don't know if you're gonna be able to take me or not, but if there is any way I can come with you, I would really like to."

My loyalty was with Clive.

And, you know, I was building something.

It was an opportunity to actually do something fresh.

I didn't hesitate.

"This sounds crazy.

I'm in."

Every one of the 18 senior executives of Arista came over to J Records.

That was one of the most emotionally gratifying and meaningful situations that ever happened in my career.

[Davis] So the deal was 150 million dollars.

[man] It's right there on your left.

[Davis] Five platinum artists from those that would come with us, and five new artists that were in development.

[Goldstuck] Of course, there were certain artists that were off-limits.

Carlos was off-limits, Whitney was off-limits, Kenny G was off-limits.

So our focus was really on the new artists.

Thank you.

Hi.

That doesn't cut it.

No, no, no.

No.

No.

I'm at Clive's table.

Thank you.

Very good.

[applause] [woman] Happy Birthday!

This is really a night where each and every one of you here tonight will make a discovery.

Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Alicia Keys.

[cheers, applause] [Alicia Keys] At 16, I was signed by Columbia Records.

The people at Columbia really didn't understand what I was doing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah, yeah Come on [Keys] And so, my manager at the time, he was like, "Well if they don't get you, then let's find somebody that does."

I'll never forget meeting Clive.

I remember him being really appreciative, and celebratory of the fact that I was my own artist.

And I remember feeling so inspired.

It's like Clive saying... there are so few times where you really find that special artist.

And I think Alicia was the one, you know, that came after Whitney.

I keep on fallin' In... In love People really liked Fallin', but it defied all genres.

It didn't have a place at radio.

Sometimes I love you [Palmese] We were slipping a little bit.

We weren't getting the momentum that we knew the song deserved.

Clive did something I don't think he had ever done.

He wrote a letter to Oprah.

And she's here to sing her first single, called "Fallin'."

Please welcome Alicia Keys.

[cheers, applause] I keep on fallin' In and out of love With you [Keys] He knew that if people could lay their eyes on me, if they could see what he saw, that they would see what he saw.

I, I, I Never felt this way [DeCurtis] The brilliant thing about Alicia Keys is she was exactly the sort of thing that Clive Davis was not supposed to be able to do anymore.

Which was discover, like, a hot new young talent, who was gonna stand the industry on its head.

Okay.

She's it.

Alicia Keys.

Thanks Clive.

[laughs] Thanks Clive.

Thanks Clive.

[applause, laughter] [man] "Thanks Clive."

[Goldstuck] So we had a lot of wind behind our backs.

We had success with Alicia, we had success with Luther Vandross.

If I could get Another chance [applause] I have been a fan of Clive's for... ever.

Let's just say I was available when he called me.

[laughter] I guess I'll never know We had successes just about with every release.

- Break yo' back - Come on!

Break yo' back Come on!

[Davis] Busta Rhymes' first album went platinum.

And she will be loved We had Maroon 5.

Yeah, here comes the water And rock with Velvet Revolver.

Wash away the sins Of you and I [Cowell] Clive just liked having hits.

But not just hits.

He wanted big hits.

[up-tempo music playing] We have the results.

This is the moment... [crowd cheering] the country has been waiting for.

[Cowell] It still felt a bit gimmicky, the whole competition.

Which to be fair, you know, in the past, that's what it had been.

There was some success in other countries.

But more as a souvenir.

There had never really been talent show winners who could have recording careers.

The winner, of American Idol... Kelly Clarkson.

[cheering] [Cowell] The show had found a superstar.

And I said to him, "Look this girl is dependent upon you backing her.

You've gotta get behind her.

You've gotta help with the songs."

[Naftaly] We're gonna use the same process finding material for them as we do with our A-plus superstars.

Pop music had been changing.

There was no new Barry Manilow.

There was no new Barbra Streisand.

I thought this program would enhance the opportunity to break pop artists.

We did great.

Since you've been gone They would literally fly these kids from winning that night, on a plane to New York, and then we were sitting in an office the next day, and I was there playing them songs.

Jesus, take the wheel Take it from my hands 'Cause I can't do this On my own [Ryan Seacrest] Celebrating the 33 million sales, worldwide.

So congratulations, and thank you for everything that you've done for this show.

[applause] [cheering] J Records had emerged as an "instant major."

You go to my head And you linger Like a haunting refrain Myself and Richard Perry, one night after a few bottles of wine, started just, you know, around the piano, singing the great American songbook.

We took it to three different labels and they all said no.

I knew there was one person who would get it, if anybody would.

So I went to see Clive.

He said, "This is terrific.

We can do this."

[Stewart] We all gathered in one of the bungalows that Clive always stays in.

And Clive said, "Well, I want it to be Fred and Ginger."

And he got up and started dancing around the room.

Then Arnold got up and started dancing around the room.

So did Richard Perry and I.

[Stiefel] Clive would be in the studio in New York at two in the morning.

Going over tracks, and checking tempos, and making sure it was dance-y enough.

Make it dance-y enough.

You know?

The way you hold your knife The way we dance till three Prior to it being released, they got CDs sent to high-end shops, all around the country, so if women were shopping at Jimmy Choo for shoes, or Bergdorf Goodman, they would be hearing Rod Stewart singing these songs.

They can't take that Away from you Thank you, Clive.

Thank you for your belief.

And I think that's the most important thing.

You believed in us right from the start.

Let's hope it'll be number one next week.

[cheering] This album just exploded, as did the second... [chuckling] and third and fourth volume.

[Goldstuck] You know, we were having a lot of success.

And, at the same time, L.A. Reid had come into Arista, Zelnick and Dornemann at this point had been fired.

And, you're in a situation where Arista and L.A. were struggling.

I became the president of Arista Records.

I thought it was growth.

I thought it was some kind of an accelerated career move.

But, as it turns out, it was... a foolish guy stepping into the shoes of an icon.

[Davis] I had a meeting with the new head of BMG.

And he said, "Look, I'm gonna propose that we create BMG North America.

And I'm gonna make you head.

And you will now be head of the group that contains RCA Records, Jive Records, and you will get back Arista Records."

Wow.

Yeah.

I remember the day.

I remember the moment.

When Clive called me to his office, and he said, "Ree, I got something that I want you to hear."

Like a warrior that fights And wins the battle I know the taste of victory Though I went Through some nights Consumed by the shadows I was crippled emotionally [Goldstuck] He had a 25 year legacy that was coming back, and everything had come full circle.

It was a very emotional moment, because he was also reunited with many of the artists that had been part of his life for so long.

I write the songs that make the whole world sing [Swidler] He was then working with Whitney again, and he was working with Santana again.

And he was working with so many of the original Arista artists.

...that make The young girls cry I write the songs, I write the songs And I write the songs [applause, cheering] So much of the conversation about my father, you know, it-- you know, there are a... just a few artists that defined his career.

People talk about Joplin and Springsteen and those early culture changing moments.

But, invariably, people talk about Whitney, and the success that they soared to together.

[David] In the world, he was the only person that she really believed... knew the answers.

Even when she would fight with him, even when she didn't want to record.

Even when she didn't like anybody that day, she believed in him a hundred percent.

[Shulman] He treated her like a daughter.

You know?

So she became like a member of our family 'cause how he treated her.

Without a doubt.

I mean, the deepest relationship that Clive had with any artist was with Whitney.

You know, there was unprecedented success.

You know, like, finding her when she was still a teenager.

And, you know, kind of going on this unbelievable ride.

And then of course, you know, the downfall.

Something that was very difficult for Clive to understand.

[man] Your name's been in the headlines in association with a rather bizarre few months surrounding Whitney Houston.

Allegations that there are substance abuse problems.

Have you talked to her about it, point blank?

I have never talked to her about anything other than her professional career.

And, with respect to her professional career, she is at the top.

[Shulman] We have this thing of denial, kind of, in our family.

He didn't really want to know what she was doing.

[DeCurtis] You know, to this day, if you talk to Clive about Whitney, he'll talk about her smoking.

It was always smoking.

Stop smoking and stuff.

But that's how he coped with it.

He couldn't believe his little girl... did this.

I mean, I remember when I went to interview her for Rolling Stone and she was smoking.

I thought, like, "Man, you have that voice and you're smoking?"

I mean, that struck me as... You know, there's a line from W.H.

Auden like, "A crack in the rim of a teacup leads to the land of the dead."

And that was the crack in the teacup.

[Doug Davis] So much of what you hear was rumors and gossip.

When he would go, and he would engage her, he wouldn't necessarily see that.

He was seen, by her, as this industry father figure.

And so any time that she came to see him, she would put on her best clothing.

She'd make herself up.

She'd get her hair done.

She'd walk in with the smile of a woman looking to please you know, that type of person in her life.

So he would always see her at her best.

[indistinct chatter] [Pat Houston] And with Clive, he kept her right there, particularly with the music.

He provided a lot of structure, that, you know, was the challenging part.

You know, his expectations, his standards, were very high.

And she met those standards when she worked with him.

[vocalizing, snapping] [female reporter] Gossip surrounding Houston's alleged drug abuse has followed her for weeks.

You know, the tough thing is, nobody really knows what's going on.

[Davis] In the middle of tabloidal stories, chronicling a tumultuous marriage, speculating as to the degree of mutual drug use... And was I active?

At this point, I had to be.

Bobby, for some infraction, was in jail.

And behind the scenes, I got his agreement that he would go into rehab if she did.

So I invited her to this home.

She came with her daughter.

With her aunt.

And after dinner, I said, "You know, we should talk.

Because you've always been there for me.

We've had an incredible professional life together.

It's unmistakable, now, that you're fighting drugs.

Whitney, you won't win this battle."

She sat there, and gauged me.

She said, "It's not as bad as you think.

It's occasional use.

I'm not ready to do that."

She didn't deny it.

But... She had not sunken to that level that I imagine that the addicted have to sink to in order to get help to save themselves.

And so that did fall on deaf ears.

[Diane Sawyer] After years now of rumors, and silence on her part, about the cancellations, erratic behavior, her explosive marriage, and the headlines that she was near death because of drug use, or partying, as she calls it.

The last time most of us saw her: the Michael Jackson concert.

I come to Madison Square Garden.

And she came on stage... and I literally gasped.

She was near being a skeleton.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

And I could barely watch her.

I was heartsick.

[DeCurtis] It was very hard for Clive to understand... Whitney's descent.

You know, Clive loves his life.

You know, he has this incredible energy, to this day, you know, about being Clive Davis, day in and day out.

So why you would essentially want to destroy yourself...

I don't think that that made any sense to him.

[Davis] "My dear, dear Whitney.

The time has come.

Of course I know that your power of denial is in overdrive.

I join your mother in pleading with you to face up to the truth now.

Right now.

You need help.

And it must begin now.

I will stand by you with love and caring to see you through it... to newfound peace and happiness, to inspire the rest of the world.

Love, Clive."

So we segue... to 2004.

I was called by the Princess Grace Foundation, that at the World Music Awards, they would like to present me with their Lifetime Achievement Award.

And I get this call the day before that.

From Whitney.

And she said, "Clive.

How could you accept this award without my being there?"

I said, "Whitney... the last time I saw you... you were a skeleton."

She said, "Clive, I'm looking much better.

I'm still a little thin, but I'm looking much better.

And vocally, I could do it."

I said, "Okay, look.

I'll tell you what.

I don't know what you look like.

I don't know what you sound like.

If you're up to it, I'll make arrangements."

We all know... [crowd cheering] in our industry... the artist, the songwriter, the producers, the executives.

Ladies and gentlemen, the best singer in the world today, Ms. Whitney Houston.

[crowd roaring] [Davis] As soon as she was introduced, and started singing... coming out of the darkness, you could barely see her... and coming forward slowly... [crowd cheering] and the fans went nuts.

They couldn't believe their eyes.

I believe in dreams again I believe that love Will never end And like the river Finds the sea I was lost Now I'm free 'Cause I believe in you And me She went to rehab.

You know, and she saw how helpful it was to her.

She was trying to get herself together.

It was a struggle, but she was doing it.

I was lost But now I'm I'm free Whoa 'Cause I I do believe in you And And me [Davis] And that's the way that I remember Whitney.

[dispatcher] 911, emergency.

[man] Hi, how are you doing?

This is security from The Beverly Hilton.

What's going on?

I need some paramedics.

Apparently, we have a 46-year-old female, found in a bathroom.

That's all I've got right now.

[Davis] I know that Whitney never... intended to leave so early.

We all thought that she had beat it.

And she obviously didn't.

Singer Whitney Houston, one of the greatest voices of our generation, has died.

[female reporter] Whitney Houston was supposed to be staying here for her mentor Clive Davis's famous pre-Grammy party.

Instead, this is where she died.

And as Hollywood mourns, investigators are now trying to piece together the star's final moments.

[Pat Houston] She was extremely happy leading up to that day.

But she was also very disturbed.

And I knew that.

I knew that.

[Davis] I was informed about this just a few hours... before my dinner.

I... literally, obviously, went into shock.

And I tried to determine what would be the right thing to do.

[Hudson] Everything stopped.

So everyone was wondering, like... Are-- is-- will the pre-Grammy go on?

Hell, will the Grammys go on?

There was a tremendous amount of scrutiny.

My father was not able to mourn privately.

We got in the limousine, we turn on the TV as we're going to the party, and there's a helicopter view of us in the limousine on CNN.

You know, you're in the car, looking up.

It was very surreal.

I saw tears behind the closed door.

But he had to wipe them away and head out under the glare of the cameras.

You know, I saw real strength of character, to compose himself and be a leader of other people.

[Davis] I felt... that the show must go on.

I felt, in the tradition of music and show business... that the show does go on.

Whitney was there for that show.

Loved it.

She would want it to go on.

So... By now, sadly... you've all learned of the unspeakably tragic news of our beloved Whitney's passing.

I don't have to mask my emotions.

Not in front of this room... full of so many dear friends.

I do have a very heavy heart.

And I am... personally devastated by the loss of someone who has meant so much to me for so many years.

[Combs] You know, I think a lot of people, you know, that were there, they felt really weird about what was going on, but it was something that we had to deal with.

And we wound up, because of Clive, dealing with it as a musical family, all together.

When I found out in the news today, I was literally in a state of shock.

You know, I immediately thought about... her mother, Cissy, her father... her daughter, her family, her friends.

And Clive Davis.

It's rare in this industry that you get somebody to really ride with you.

Imagine going through some ups and downs like that.

And having somebody stand by your side when the whole world is turning their back on you.

Somebody that believes in you.

Somebody that's gonna be there for you in your darkest hour.

That's the type of man Clive Davis is.

[applause] [vocalizing] Yeah I believe That children are our future Teach them well and Let them lead the way [Davis] The loss of Whitney came about as suddenly as the loss of my parents.

And profoundly reminded me how quickly and immediately vitally important people in your life can just disappear.

Perhaps being orphaned in life, substantially deepened the impact when Whitney was abruptly taken away from us.

We used to be Everybody's searching For a hero People need Someone to look up to [Smith] Clive loves his artists, he believes in his artists, he believes in himself, which is important.

All of the people that were discovered and signed, and all of the songs, all of the celebration.

You know, it all stems from that authentic love of music and of the people who create it and perform it.

[Geffen] You know, what's important is, really, I guess, at the end of the day, did you have a good time doing what you did?

I'm not sure anybody loves what they do more than Clive.

He kinda has this certain movement that he does with his finger.

When he likes stuff, or when it's coming to the climax.

Because the greatest Love of all [Swidler] At the end of the day, it's very small.

It's that original love of music.

It's the Broadway shows that he went to as a kid.

That connection.

That's really what it's about for him.

[Babyface] He understands it all comes down to a song.

That's his world.

He's a music man.

And that's what he lives for.

The greatest Love of all [Goldstuck] Clive loves the process.

In love with the process today as he was when I first met him all those years ago.

He's in love with this business, and that's why he'll never give it up.

[Davis] This is an artist that I believe in.

Let me introduce you to Avery Wilson.

You know it takes a very special person, at 80-some years old, to do the day-to-day that he does.

I give him a lot of credit.

Clive will never, ever retire.

He'll never leave music.

He's gonna be in his office, until the wee hours of the morning, "Bring the guitar up."

[laughs] "Let's bring the vocal down."

The idea that this gift of music, that I never expected to be part of my life, became my passion.

I'm blessed.

And truly, so gratified.

And the best achievement in life... is to love your work.

There is no greater reward, to not count hours, not to work nine to five, not when it's midnight or 2:00 a.m. and you're still working, and know that you're energized by it.

For me, he stood for everything I wanted to be if I was going to be successful.

He's either introduced us to more artists, more songwriters, more songs, than any other person.

Ever.

Ever.

In music.

It's love, baby.

You do the thing that you really love to do and you carry on.

Well let's put it this way.

Five years ago, Jay-Z, who would have thought that you would have retired before me?

[laughter, applause] Find your, find your Your strength In Oh [loud applause, cheering] In love [loud cheering, applause] [Janis Joplin: "Me and Bobby McGee"] Busted flat in Baton Rouge Waitin' for a train And I's feelin' near as faded as my jeans Bobby thumbed a diesel down Just before it rained It rode us all the way To New Orleans I pulled my harpoon Out of my dirty red bandana I was playin' soft while Bobby Sang the blues, yeah Windshield wipers Slappin' time I was holdin' Bobby's hand in mine We sang every song That driver knew Freedom's just another word For nothin' left to lose Nothin', Don't mean nothin', hon if it ain't free No, no And, feelin' good was easy, Lord When he sang the blues You know, feelin' good Was good enough for me Good enough for me And my Bobby McGee From the Kentucky coal mine To the California sun There Bobby shared the secrets Of my soul Through all kinds of weather Through everything we done Yeah, Bobby baby Kept me from the cold One day up near Salinas, Lord I let him slip away... [Alicia Keys: "No One (Curtis Lynch Reggae Mix)"] I just want you close Where you can stay forever You can be sure That it will only get better You and me together Through the days and nights I don't worry 'cause Everything's gonna be All right People keep talking They can say what they like But all I know is Everything's gonna be All right And no one, no one, no one Can get in the way Of what I'm feeling No one, no one, no one Can get in the way Of what I feel For you You You Can get in the way of what I feel for you When the rain Is pouring down And my heart is hurting You will always be around This I know for certain You and me together Through the days and nights I don't worry 'cause Everything's gonna be All right People keep talking They can say what they like But all I know is Everything's gonna be All right No one, no one, no one Can get in the way of what I'm feeling No one, no one, no one Can get in the way of what I feel for you You You Can get in the way of what I feel I know some people Search the world To find Something like what we have I know people will try Try to divide Something so real So till the end of time I'm telling you That in the world No one, no one Can get in the way of what I'm feeling No one, no one, no one Can get in the way of what I feel for you [vocalizing]