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SoundCtrl & NYU Present a Special Conversation with Clive Davis!
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Last night, Clive Davis spoke to NYU students and music enthusiasts about his career and the 35th Anniversary of his label Arista Records. In case, you are wondering who Clive Davis is, this record mogul has influenced the careers of Whitney Houston, Barry Manilow, Patty Smith, Dionne Warwick, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson, Aretha Franklin, Babyface, Diddy and Janis Joplin to name a few.
After more than four decades in the music industry Davis, who now serves as Chief Creative Officer as Sony Music Entertainment is still quite sharp at age 77. He had many interesting anecdotes.
Davis signed Whitney Houston many years ago and he was extremely involved in her comeback album "I Look to You," which is her first album to reach number one since 1987. Clive is also involved in Leona Lewis' career and discussed making her sophomore album "Echo," which is out this month. He said he put the call out to great writers, before Whitney agreed to record. R. Kelly sent him a verse and the chorus of "I Look to You," at the time, which ended up being her first single. Davis also presented "Nothing But Love," to Houston.
Then Davis reminisced about the late 1960's and 1970's. Clive had seen Janis Joplin at the Monterey Pop Festival. There was a different attitude and electrification of the guitar, he said. He paid $200,000 to buy her out of existing record deal and he has no regrets. Six weeks later he signed Electric Flag. He also signed Carlos Santana, whom he met in San Francisco. He also signed Pink Floyd and Aerosmith to Columbia Records. Clive is in the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," and he said that rock changed his life. Clive also made the decision to sign Earth, Wind and Fire.
Bill Werde, Editor in Chief of Billboard Magazine moderated the conversation. He noted that in old photos, Clive was always dressed as himself and never felt the need to dress like his artists. Clive agreed and said, you go to be yourself and if you try to be purposefully trendy you lose the respect you might want.
Davis went to NYU and then Harvard Law School, but he wasn't really a music man. He would sign artists for 10 to 15,000 dollars. After being fired from CBS Records, Clive Davis was hired by Columbia Pictures to be a consultant for the company’s record and music operations. Assuming the presidency of this division in late 1974, Davis would fold the various Columbia legacy labels (Colpix Records, Colgems Records, and Bell Records) into a new entity named Arista Records, ultimately buying a percentage of the company from Columbia Pictures. The label was named Arista after New York City's secondary school honor society (of which Davis was a member at Erasmus Hall High School).
Barry Manilow and Melissa Manchester had big pop hits. Clive said that although his expertise was rock he also branched out into R&B. "It's about who you associate with and approve." He admired Diddy's A&R skills so he tapped into them. He also gave the green light to Babyface to create LaFace records, which was responsible for breaking artists like Usher, TLC, Outkast.
Clive's philosophy when he signs an artist is that he wants a hit album as opposed to a hit single, and he wants an artist to have a long successful career. He mentioned Flo Rida's success as riding a hit single. He said Flo's album sales were low, but his one single "Low" sold millions and he did well that way. Davis views his report card as the billboard chart results. So far his report card has been good. If it were bad, he would not continue to do what he is doing. "Already Gone," by Kelly Clarkson is blowing up the charts, but initially Kelly didn't like the song.
"Smooth" by Santana was a huge hit. "Spotlights" by Jennifer Hudson turned out to be big. Davis tries to keep his ears current. Each week Davis gets a copy of every record that hits the charts. Houston's album has sold 2 million around the world and Clive thinks it will go platinum in the US next week. Clive made Whitney's album release a media event. They marketed it, they held listening parties in New York and London. It created a lot of buzz.
During the discussion, Davis gave the audience some background about the song "Game of Love" by Santana. Did you know that it was initially recorded by Macy Gray? Davis played that version for the crowd. He said it didn't sound right, so they asked another singer to record it. This singer ended up being Tina Turner, but because she did not want to shoot a video or do any promotion for the song they tapped Michelle Branch. Her version ended up being a huge hit.
Is artist development lost? Davis believes that it is not. He still plays a large role in developing his artists and thinks that it is important. Examiner.com also asked Davis his thoughts on auto-tune and vocorder. He said he has no problem if artists use technologies to improve their music, but he will not sign an inferior artist just because he sounds good singing with a vocorder. To Clive, it is all about performing live and turning Madison Square Garden upside down. The artist, must have a great voice first, then he or she may take advantage of auto-tune. Things to look out for: Davis is in the studio with Carlos Santana who is working on making a greatist hits album. Santana is going t Santana-ize classic rock songs. Alicia Keys also has a new album coming out, which Davis is really excited about!
This is what the SoundCTRL co-founder had to say about the event!
"We were delighted to be able to present Clive Davis, one of the most successful record men in the history of the music business, to a music and technology audience. Clive shared his secrets of success, gave some great advice and even danced a little. It was a great evening and will be one of music’s most remembered conversations to date for the SoundCtrl community." Jesse Kirshbaum, Co-founder of SoundCtrl.
For more information check: http://soundctrl.com/
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