Clive Davis has won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a non-performer, in 2000.
31 Facts About Clive Davis
2.
From 1967 to 1973, Davis was the president of Columbia Records.
3.
Clive Davis was founder and president of Arista Records from 1974 through 2000 until founding J Records.
4.
Clive Davis is credited with hiring a young recording artist, Tony Orlando, for Columbia in 1967.
5.
Clive Davis is credited with bringing Whitney Houston and Barry Manilow to prominence.
6.
Clive Davis was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to a Jewish family, the son of Herman and Florence Clive Davis.
7.
Clive Davis's mother died at age 47, and his father died the following year when Davis was still a teenager.
8.
Clive Davis then moved in with his married sister, who lived in Bayside, Queens, New York City.
9.
Clive Davis received a full scholarship to Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Board of Student Advisers and graduated in 1956.
10.
Clive Davis practiced law in a small firm in New York, then moved on to the firm of Rosenman, Colin, Kaye, Petschek, and Freund two years later, where partner Ralph Colin had CBS as a client.
11.
Clive Davis was hired by a former colleague at the firm, Harvey Schein, to become assistant counsel of CBS subsidiary Columbia Records at age 28, and then general counsel the following year.
12.
In 1966, CBS formed the Columbia-CBS Group which reorganized CBS's recorded music operations into CBS Records with Clive Davis heading the new unit.
13.
The next year, Clive Davis was appointed president and became interested in the newest generation of folk rock and rock and roll.
14.
In June 1967, Clive Davis attended the Monterey Pop Festival after his friends and business associate, Lou Adler, convinced him.
15.
One of the last bands Clive Davis tried to sign to Columbia Records was the proto-punk band Death.
16.
Clive Davis took time out to write his memoirs and then founded Arista Records in 1974.
17.
Clive Davis was named after New York City's secondary school honor society, of which Davis was a member.
18.
At Arista, Clive Davis signed Barry Manilow, followed by Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Patti Smith, Westlife, Al Jourgensen, The Outlaws, Eric Carmen, The Bay City Rollers, Expose, Taylor Dayne, Ace of Base, The Right Profile, Air Supply, Ray Parker Jr.
19.
Clive Davis was made aware of Cissy Houston's daughter Whitney Houston after he saw the Houstons perform at a New York City nightclub.
20.
Clive Davis left Arista in 2000 and started J Records, an independent label with financial backing from Arista parent Bertelsmann Music Group, named with the middle initial of Clive Davis and his four children.
21.
BMG would buy a majority stake in J Records in 2002, and Clive Davis would become president and CEO of the larger RCA Music Group.
22.
Clive Davis remained with RCA Label Group until 2008, when he was named chief creative officer for Sony BMG.
23.
Clive Davis was elevated to Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Entertainment, a title he currently holds, as part of a corporate restructuring when Sony BMG became Sony Music Entertainment in late 2008 when BMG sold its shares to Sony.
24.
Arista Records and J Records, which were both founded by Clive Davis, were dissolved in October 2011 through the restructuring of RCA Records.
25.
Clive Davis received the Grammy Trustees Award in 2000 and the President's Merit Award at the 2009 Grammys.
26.
In 2000, Clive Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the non-performers category.
27.
In 2000, Clive Davis received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
28.
Clive Davis was a 2018 Honoree at The New Jewish Home's Eight Over Eighty Gala.
29.
An alumnus of New York University, Clive Davis is a significant benefactor to it.
30.
Clive Davis was married to Helen Cohen from 1956 to 1965 and to Janet Adelberg from 1965 to 1985.
31.
In 2013, Clive Davis publicly came out as bisexual in his autobiography The Soundtrack of My Life.