Clive Jay Davis (b. April 4, 1932 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American record producer, executive and a leading music industry executive. He has won multiple Grammy awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He has transformed the landscape of the modern music industry with a career spanning over forty years. From 1967-72 he was the President of Columbia Records, was the founder and president of Arista Records in the late 1970s through 2000 until founding J Records. From 2003 until April 2008, Davis was the Chairman and CEO of the RCA Music Group (which includes RCA Records, J Records and Arista Records), Chairman and CEO of J Records, and Chairman and CEO of BMG North America. Currently Davis is the Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Entertainment Worldwide. Davis is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer.

Early life and career: The CBS years

Davis said, "When you grew up in Brooklyn and you were good in school and you don't like science, to rise above your family you have to become a lawyer, so everybody said you'll be a lawyer, so I became a lawyer. I didn't know one wealthy person. I was at a law firm working on other people's clients. And then I got a lucky break. A client of a law firm that I was in came to me and then said you could become chief lawyer for Columbia Records if you come right now. I was out of law school for three years and I got that offer, never even thinking music, never even thinking change. I knew if I stayed in law, I would be servicing other people's clients. I didn't travel in those circles. I made the decision I would take that job, go to Columbia Records, and I did within six months, become their chief lawyer, and this odyssey began."

Davis is from a working class Jewish American family and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He was named Clive by his mother, who was a fan of a British actor with that name. Davis graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from New York University College of Arts and Science in 1953, and received a scholarship to Harvard Law School. Davis graduated and practiced law in a small firm which folded, then moved on to the firm of Rosenman, Colin, Kaye, Petschek and Freund, which had CBS Records as a client. Davis was then hired by the legal department of CBS subsidiary Columbia Records.

Davis said, pointing to a picture on his "wall of fame", "This is the night I signed Janis Joplin. She was the first Artist I ever signed."

"When I became head of Columbia Records, I was totally green, so I started listening to music intently, every radio station, every record that came out. You've gotta be the best prepared. You've gotta be the most informed. So, I have a high work ethic. And I used it. I don't mean to imply, when I discuss, that just hard work is enough to succeed in the record business. History has shown that it helps a lot if you have if you call what we in our industry call ears, and ears is that ability to hear special talent or to hear a hit." Davis became a protegé of CBS Records President Goddard Lieberson, and discovered a passion for music which led him up the ranks of Columbia/CBS. In 1967, he became president of Columbia Records and, more or less by accident, he became a convert to the newest generation of folk rock and rock and roll. "Monterrey was almost a religious experience without sounding melodramatic. I was seeing something that was changing the face of music. I had to trust my instincts, and go on the line. I never pictured myself to be an A&R man or talent discoverer that was not within the realm of what I had done before. I found through a combination of luck and the finding of a natural, talent that I never knew I had, a career and tremendous satisfaction. I started trusting my judgment after Big Brother and the Electric Flag and Blood Sweat and Tears and Santana and Chicago, and when they all started all making it I sensed a change was there and a revolution was definitely occurring I was lucky to find myself right in the middle of it." One of his earliest pop signings was the British folk-rock musician Donovan, who enjoyed a string of successful hit singles and albums released in the USA on the Epic label.