Clive Davis Dies: Music Biz Icon Who Discovered Whitney Houston & Revived Careers Was 94

Clive Davis, the Grammy-winning music mogul who founded Arista Records, discovered and mentored Whitney Houston and specialized in resurrecting the careers of artists many considered past their peak, died Monday at his New York City home. He was 94.

Davis founded Arista Records in 1974 after a storied tenure in senior posts at Columbia/CBS Records and later Bell Records. His label would specialize in revitalizing the careers of veteran artists whose commercial success seemed to have peaked. Among those were Aerosmith, Aretha Franklin,the Grateful Dead, Santana, the Kinks, Dionne Warwick and many more. The label also was home to such popular acts as Houston, Barry Manilow, Air Supply and Patti Smith.

Davis’ legacy also is tied to one of the most popular singers of the past half-century. Whitney Houston had been a backup singer for such acts as Lou Rawls, Chaka Khan and Jermaine Jackson before Davis saw her onstage in New York. He signed her to Arista in 1983 and would mentor the young phenom for the next quarter-century. Houston became Arista’s all-time best-selling acts, with sales of her albums and singles topping 109 million in the U.S. alone.

MORE TO COME