{"id":92973,"date":"2026-06-22T16:12:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/?p=92973"},"modified":"2026-06-22T19:00:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T00:00:02","slug":"record-label-executive-producer-clive-davis-dies-at-94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/record-label-executive-producer-clive-davis-dies-at-94\/","title":{"rendered":"Record label executive, producer Clive Davis dies at 94"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By ALAN SMASON, <em>Special to the CCJN<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Clive Davis, the legendary record label executive and label owner and award-winning producer, died this morning, June 22, 2026, following a short illness. Davis had been reported as confined to a hospital last month for an upper respiratory infection. A cause of death was not announced for the 94-year-old, who died at his Manhattan home.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_92974\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Clive_Davis_Springsteen-73_cropped.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92974\" class=\"wp-image-92974 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Clive_Davis_Springsteen-73_cropped-300x280.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"280\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Clive_Davis_Springsteen-73_cropped-300x280.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Clive_Davis_Springsteen-73_cropped-1024x957.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Clive_Davis_Springsteen-73_cropped-768x718.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Clive_Davis_Springsteen-73_cropped-1536x1435.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Clive_Davis_Springsteen-73_cropped-2048x1913.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/280;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92974\" class=\"wp-image-92974 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Clive_Davis_Springsteen-73_cropped-300x280.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Clive_Davis_Springsteen-73_cropped-300x280.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Clive_Davis_Springsteen-73_cropped-1024x957.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Clive_Davis_Springsteen-73_cropped-768x718.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Clive_Davis_Springsteen-73_cropped-1536x1435.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Clive_Davis_Springsteen-73_cropped-2048x1913.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-92974\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clive Davis in 2025 at the release of &#8220;Deliver Me from Nowhere&#8221; film. (Photo by Bryan Berlin &#8211; CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Clive Jay Davis was born to Jewish parents in the Crown Points neighborhood of Brooklyn. While he was still attending Erasmus High School, both of his parents died within a year of one another, forcing him to move into an older married sister&#8217;s apartment in nearby Queens. He graduated magna cum laude from New York City University College of Arts and Sciences in 1953 with a political science degree and was inducted as a member into Phi Beta Kappa honors society. Following graduation, he received a full scholarship to Harvard University School of Law and graduated in 1956.<\/p>\n<p>A few years later, he began his career at Columbia Records as an associate legal counsel while working for a New York City law firm. The following year, following a shakeup at Columbia Records, he was named the chief legal counsel at the young age of 29.<\/p>\n<p>One of Davis&#8217; earliest breakthroughs was when he signed British songwriter and singer Donovan to a recording contract at Epic Records. In 1967, after being persuaded by the festival promoter Lou Adler, he attended the Monterey International Pop Festival. Davis subsequently signed Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company to a Columbia Records contract. He also famously signed Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Billy Joel, Laura Nyro, Santana, Aerosmith, Chicago, Earth, Wind and Fire and Blood, Sweat and Tears to Columbia (CBS) Records contracts.<\/p>\n<p>Davis was fired in 1973 from CBS Records for what was termed as a misuse of company funds, allegedly for paying for his son&#8217;s bar mitzvah with company monies. The amount allegedly taken was $8,800.<\/p>\n<p>Columbia Pictures later hired him as a consultant as did Bell Records, which eventually led Davis to found his own label, Arista, named for a high school honor society of which he was a member at Erasmus High School.<\/p>\n<p>While at Arista Records, he signed Barry Manilow, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Kenny G, Eric Carmen, Ace of Base, Alicia Keys and Milli Vanilli to new recording contracts. He also brought already-established artists to his label such as Melissa Manchester, Carly Simon, The Grateful Dead and The Kinks.<\/p>\n<p>But by far and away, the biggest sensation Davis signed was Whitney Houston, whom he first knew as the daughter of singer Cissy Houston and niece of Dionne Warwick. Houston&#8217;s albums were among the biggest hits of the 1980s and 1990s. He personally oversaw the selections for Houston&#8217;s first debut album &#8220;Whitney&#8221; and the two managed to chart 11 number one hits including the soundtrack to &#8220;The Bodyguard,&#8221; which still holds the record for the best selling soundtrack of all time and contains Houston&#8217;s blockbuster hit &#8220;I Will Always Love You.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Davis also founded LaFace Records with producers Babyface and L.A. Reid and artists like Pink, TLC, Outkast, Toni Braxton and Usher. He also worked with Sean &#8220;Puffy&#8221; Combs (aka &#8220;Puffdaddy&#8221;) to form Bad Boy Records, which was the home label for The Notorious B.I.G. (aka Biggie Smalls), Mase and other East Coast rappers.<\/p>\n<p>In 2000, Davis left Arista to form his own label J Records, an independent label launched with financial assistance from the Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) that controlled RCA Records. When BMG acquired a majority stake in J Records, Davis was promoted to be the president of RCA Record Group in 2002. Two years later, BMG merged with Sony Music Entertainment, which controlled his former labels of Columbia and Epic Records, and Davis was named the Chief Creative Officer of the new company, Sony BMG. Since 2008 and until the time of his death Davis maintained the title of Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Entertainment.<\/p>\n<p>As a producer, he won four Grammy Awards: two for Santana&#8217;s &#8220;Supernatural&#8221; album in 2000 for Album of the Year and Best Rock Album, one for Kelly Clarkson&#8217;s Best Pop Vocal Album in 2000 and one for Jennifer Hudson&#8217;s self-titled album for Best R&amp;B Album in 2009.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 2000, David also received the Grammy Trustees Award that year. He also received the President&#8217;s Award at the 2009 Grammy Awards.<\/p>\n<p>The founder of Clive Davis Entertainment, he also had a number of stakes in movie productions and TV projects with major studios for several decades.<\/p>\n<p>Married and divorced twice to Jewish wives, Davis had four children and eight grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>When he was 80, in 2013, he identified as bisexual following the publication of his autobiography &#8220;The Soundtrack of My Life.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Since 1976 and through the intervening years, Davis hosted his legendary Pre-Grammy Parties noted as the glitziest of industry celebrations with V.I.P.s clammoring for invitations to witness special live performances by recording stars.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A former executive of CBS Records, who wished to remain anonymous, joined the company when Davis was still president. He characterized Davis as one of the most important figures in the history of the recording industry. &#8220;It would not be a stretch to say that he changed the culture of the company and created the modern record industry,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Record%20label%20executive%2C%20producer%20Clive%20Davis%20dies%20at%2094\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":92974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[15228,15226,15229,15224,8224,15227,8790,8795,8788,15225],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92973"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92973"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92995,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92973\/revisions\/92995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}