Music mogul Clive Davis dies at 94

Clive Davis, a former corporate lawyer who became one of the most influential figures in American rock and pop music as he fostered the careers of Bob Dylan, Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen and other stars, died on Monday at the age of 94, the New York Times reported, citing his family. 

Davis, who was known as "the man with the golden ear" for his ability to identify potential hit songs, died at his home in Manhattan, the daily reported, having recently been hospitalized with respiratory problems.

As an incomparable hitmaker, Davis was highly adaptable and could span genres and generations, even as he hit his 80s. For every Janis Joplin he discovered in 1960s rock, there was a Sean "P. Diddy" Combs he mentored in hip-hop in the 1990s and a Kelly Clarkson he guided in pop in the 2000s.

Davis won four Grammys for producing works by Clarkson, Carlos Santana and Jennifer Hudson, and a fifth for his contributions to music. He could even revive careers, as he did for Santana with an album that won nine Grammys in 2000, in addition to fostering comebacks by Rod Stewart, Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick.       

Davis was born in the New York borough of Brooklyn on April 4, 1932. After graduating from New York University and Harvard Law School, Davis worked at private law firms before joining the legal department at Columbia Records, a branch of CBS, in the early 1960s.

He made his first mark there by putting together a case that kept Dylan at the label when his handlers had tried to void his contract with the label.

In 1966 Davis was named head of the record label, which until then had been largely ignoring the burgeoning rock-oriented market with only a few acts such as Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel and the Byrds aimed at the youth audience.

In following years he would build the Columbia roster by signing Chicago, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Springsteen, Santana, Billy Joel, Sly and the Family Stone and Boz Scaggs — all of whom became superstar acts.  

By 1974, he found backing for his own record label, which he named Arista. Among the first signees was Barry Manilow, who gave Davis a string of hits.

At Arista, Davis specialized in taking acts such as Franklin, Warwick, Lou Reed and the Kinks that had faded after initial success and returning them to stardom. The revived acts and new talent brought in great revenues, Grammys and stacks of gold records for Arista. 

Davis' best move at Arista was discovering a teenaged Whitney Houston in 1983 and guiding her career to record-breaking heights with a string of No. 1 hits. He took a hands-on producer role with Houston's "I Will Always Love You" — from her movie with Kevin Costner, "The Bodyguard." It set a record by holding the No. 1 chart spot for 14 weeks and becoming one of the biggest-selling commercial singles of all time.

Davis and Houston grew close personally and Houston thought of Davis as family. Her decline due to drug abuse and her overdose death in 2012 were crushing for him.

Despite his roaring success, in 2000 Arista's parent company, BMG Entertainment, ousted Davis, who was undeterred and started J Records. His biggest successes at J were with Alicia Keys, Luther Vandross and the "American Songbook" series of 1930s and 1940s pop standards that revived Stewart's career.

J Records went out of existence after a series of corporate mergers and in 2008 Davis was named chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment.

Production: Natasha Mulenga, Shaurya Thapa, Writing: Bill Trott/Reuters