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<\/a><\/p>\nClive Davis (r) with Aretha Franklin at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, April 19, 2017. (Clint Spaulding\/Penske Media via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The incident cost Davis, who died Monday at age 94, his job as a leading tastemaker of the music industry at the height of a transformative moment. To make sure he got the message, CBS filed a civil suit against Davis for misappropriation of funds \u2014 in which they specified he\u2019d skimmed \u201cat least\u201d $20,000 for the simcha celebration for his son Fred. (Other misuses of funds, including renovating his apartment, were also alleged.)<\/p>\n
Davis three years later pleaded guilty to failing to pay $2,700 on the expenses. Then he bounced back. In his second act, he founded Arista Records, named after the New York City public school system honor society to which the Brooklyn native and Harvard Law graduate had belonged. <\/p>\n
There he continued his talent for talent spotting, signing Aretha Franklin, bringing in the Grateful Dead and discovering a 19-year-old Whitney Houston. And CBS bought into the new label, setting aside years of bitterness.<\/p>\n
Davis remained active in music for decades, helping to launch the career of the first \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d breakout star, Kelly Clarkson, and helping launch Bad Boy Records, which shepherded acts like The Notorious B.I.G.<\/p>\n
He was known for his unerring ear, frequently more in tune with the times than the artists he promoted. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, the Jewish folk rock duo, wanted to release the jaunty, sexy and concise \u201cCecilia\u201d as the first single off their 1970 album, \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water.\u201d Davis insisted on the title track, defying the pair\u2019s claims that it was too long, too sentimental and too slow in building up to a climax. The single sold an astonishing 8 million copies, and won the best song and best record Grammies, an anxiety-imbued paean that became an emblem of the era. <\/p>\n
He also pressed Barry Manilow, the Jewish balladeer, to record \u201cI Write the Songs\u201d in 1975; Manilow, a prolific songwriter, resisted because this was one song he did not write. (Beach Boy Bruce Johnston had written the song.) Manilow\u2019s soaring, sappy take reached the top spot on the Billboard charts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is so important to have people smarts,\u201d Davis told Billboard in one of his final interviews. Quoting advice he said he received from his mother, he continued, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to get out there with people. You\u2019ve got to learn from all walks of life, all races, all colors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davis, twice married and divorced, came out as bisexual in 2013 in his well received autobiography, \u201cThe Soundtrack of my Life.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cOn this night, after imbibing enough alcohol, I was open to responding to his sexual overtures,\u201d he wrote about a sexual encounter with a man during the what he called \u201cera of Studio 54,\u201d the late 1970s, a time known for its promiscuity. \u201cAfter my second marriage failed, I met a man who was also grounded in music. Having only had loving relationships and sexual intimacy with women, I opened myself up to the possibility that I could have that with a male, and found that I could.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davis, who didn\u2019t often speak about his Judaism publicly, was moved to speak out after the Oct. 7, 2023, deadly Hamas attacks on Israel. He noted that many of the victims had been attending a music festival. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have made it my mission in life to fight for equality and human rights \u2014 advocating for those who do not have a voice in music and elsewhere,\u201d he said. \u201cYou cannot be silent about antisemitism, or hate or discrimination of any kind.\u201d<\/p>\n