A record executive who discovered Whitney Houston, revived the career of Santana, and shaped six decades of American popular music died at his Manhattan home on June 22, 2026. Clive Davis was 94.
Davis had been hospitalized for an upper respiratory infection before his death from age-related illness, his family confirmed. He was surrounded by loved ones when he passed.
The music mogul’s death comes just days after David Clayton-Thomas, the lead singer of Blood, Sweat & Tears — one of the bands Davis signed to Columbia Records — died peacefully on Wednesday at a Toronto hospital at age 84. No cause of death was given. Clayton-Thomas fronted the band’s self-titled second album, which spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, went four-times platinum and won the Grammy for Album of the Year, beating out the Beatles’ Abbey Road. He wrote “Spinning Wheel” in 15 minutes and sold more than 40 million records across his career. He is survived by his daughters Ashleigh and Christine.
The Man With the Golden Ear
Born April 4, 1932, in Brooklyn, New York, Davis lost both parents while still a teenager. He earned a degree from New York University before winning a full scholarship to Harvard Law School. That legal training brought him to Columbia Records in 1960 as assistant counsel.
By 1967, he had ascended to the label’s presidency. He steered Columbia headlong into the rock era, signing Janis Joplin’s band Big Brother and the Holding Company, Santana, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Pink Floyd. After being fired from Columbia in 1973, Davis founded Arista Records in 1974 and later launched J Records, building a second empire from scratch.
The artists he signed read like a history of popular music itself: Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, Rod Stewart, Luther Vandross, Jermaine Jackson, Harry Connick Jr., Earth, Wind & Fire, The Grateful Dead, Notorious B.I.G., and Aretha Franklin, among dozens of others. He gave Barry Manilow his first #1 with “Mandy,” spotted Whitney Houston at 19 and signed her on the spot, and released Alicia Keys’ 2001 Grammy-winning debut album, “Songs in A Minor.” He also helped launch Christina Aguilera.
The industry nicknamed him “the Man with the Golden Ear.” When compact discs arrived in the 1980s, one running joke inside the business held that the format had been named after his initials. Former president Barack Obama, speaking earlier this year, said most people don’t realize how much the music they love was shaped by one man.
In a 2022 interview, Davis said he had found, by accident, a role for music in his life that became a natural part of him, and he realized he had a natural gift for discovering artists.
Darker Chapters
Davis’s career was not without controversy. When Whitney Houston died at the Beverly Hilton hotel in 2012, he made the decision to continue with his celebrated annual pre-Grammy party at that same location on the same day — a choice that drew fierce criticism from Houston’s inner circle.
His ties to Sean “Diddy” Combs also drew scrutiny. Davis gave Combs payments totaling between $15 million and $50 million in the 1990s, when Combs was in his early 20s and building Bad Boy Records.
Personal Life and Survivors
Davis was famously guarded about his personal life, though he did reveal publicly at age 80 that he was bisexual. His two marriages ended in divorce.
He is survived by three sons, Fred, Doug, and Mitchell, a daughter, Lauren, eight grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and his partner. His family said in a statement that Davis left an indelible mark on culture by discovering, mentoring, and championing the greatest artists in modern music. They said they would carry his love with them for the rest of their lives.
Even deep into his 90s, Davis remained a presence at his annual pre-Grammy gala, scrutinizing each year’s lineup with the same intensity he had brought to scouting talent in the 1960s. The music he curated across that span — rock, soul, pop, hip-hop, and everything between — now plays as the unofficial soundtrack to the latter half of the 20th century and well into the 21st.
