Update: Bart_Van_Hemelen (tenthousand@yahoo.com) provides a URL for the article:



http://dailynews.yahoo.co...vis_1.html

---

Arista's Clive Davis Still Has Hits



.c The Associated Press



By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY



NEW YORK (AP) - Clive Davis has a knack.



He can smell talent a mile away and when he does, watch out world.



Davis, the 65-year-old president and founder of Arista Records, has helped
launch the careers of Whitney Houston, Sarah McLachlan, Bruce Springsteen and
scores of others.



``I signed Patti Smith, the great Renaissance woman ... I signed Lou Reed ... I
signed the Grateful Dead,'' says Davis, casually recalling some of his major
coups while sitting at his desk in his midtown Manhattan office.



It's not that he's trying to brag. It's simply his matter-of-fact way of
explaining his ability to seize onto what he calls the ``all-timers'' - artists
like Billy Joel and Janis Joplin, who he also signed, by the way.



``I wait to be turned on,'' Davis says. ``If I'm not turned on in seven months,
I'll sign nobody. I mean, I don't have a quota of who I sign. I've got to feel
it.''



Davis has been feeling it for more than three decades - first, as a top
executive and president at CBS Records, and then as the head of Arista Records,
which he started after leaving CBS.



The label celebrates its 25th anniversary later this year, and during fiscal
year 1998-99, it had $425 million in sales.



``It's their best year, and it's fairly unusual for a label that has such a
small roster of artists ... to sell so many albums,'' said Adam Sandler, music
editor for Variety magazine.



The label's current top acts - Houston, McLachlan, Monica - along with new
stars like soul singer Deborah Cox and rhythm and blues quartet Next - are
largely responsible for those numbers. And, of course, Davis, who is involved
in every aspect of a record's production, from studio to release.



``Most label presidents are involved in their studio releases, but not to the
extensive level that Clive is,'' Sandler said.



Davis remains not only a major player, but a trendsetter who signed
trailblazers like Sean ``Puffy'' Combs and producers L.A. Reid and Babyface
before they became superstars.



He has also helped revitalize lagging careers. Aretha Franklin lately has
flourished at Arista after a few years on a downward spiral, and Santana's
latest release, ``Supernatural,'' has hit Billboard's top 10 and produced a hit
with ``Smooth.'' The Artist Formerly Known as Prince may be looking for Davis
to help tweak his sagging commercial appeal - he just signed to Arista in
August, his first deal with a record label since 1996.



``I think the thing that makes Clive stand out is his love of talent and his
love of music,'' says Reid, who together with Babyface signed a deal with
Arista to develop LaFace Records 10 years ago. The label is now home to such
multiplatinum acts as TLC, Toni Braxton and Usher.



``He's probably the most thorough executive that we've ever met. He's involved
in the process from beginning to end and I think that's what makes him
special.''



Davis has been a co-producer of many albums, including Houston's latest
platinum effort, ``Your Love Is My Love.'' Davis, who signed the 36-year-old
singer to Arista when she was just 19, helped arrange collaborations between
Houston and Fugees' sensations Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill. He also worked with
Houston to pick the songs on the album. The result is perhaps Houston's most
critically acclaimed album of her career.



``I have been her executive producer and creative partner since day one. I
screen all her material and she and I pick it. We're very much a creative
partnership, Whitney and I,'' Davis says.



``When you see an executive producer credit, on Monica, on Next, it's not
because I'm the head of the company. I have come up with the material, shaped
the material - that's what I do.''



It's not the typical relationship one would expect between the head of a label
and a budding artist - at least not for Cox, whose torch song, ``Nobody's
Supposed to Be Here,'' was one of last year's biggest hits.



``I thought he would be this very... (detached) CEO of a record company, but he
was the complete opposite,'' Cox recalls of her first meeting with Davis a few
years ago. ``When he comes across a hit, he'll call me, I'll listen to it and
we'll discuss what we like about the song.''



Davis, a New York City native who lost both his parents at an early age, put
himself through law school and started working at CBS Records as a lawyer in
1960. He rose to become president of the company in 1967 - even though he had
no musical background. That forced him to take a crash course in the record
business - from show music to rock.



``The first artist I ever signed was Janis Joplin. I felt my way,'' he recalls,
recounting when he first saw the rock legend at the Monterey Pop Festival in
1967. He also saw budding singer/songwriter Laura Nyro, and snapped her up as
well.



``I learned from that experience, and by coincidence, I came home, I went to a
small club in the village, and ... I saw a group in formation that was quite
innovative, brilliant ... that group turned out to be Blood, Sweat and Tears.''



And he signed them, too. And then came Santana, Billy Joel, Aerosmith,
Springsteen. With so much success, Davis was on top of the world.



But he came crashing down in 1973, when the record label accused him of
mismanagement of funds and he was fired. Although Davis says he was later
cleared, it wasn't the end of his problems; he later was indicted on tax
evasion charges, pleaded guilty to one count and had to pay a $10,000 fine.



The allegations at CBS still cause pain for Davis; it is a subject he does not
gladly talk about. But true to form, Davis rebounded from the scandal with a
vengeance. A year after his departure from CBS, he started the Arista label,
with backing from Columbia Pictures, and, he says, CBS records.



``In effect, it became a wonderful opportunity for me. It was a terribly unfair
situation for me at the time, but within a year, CBS gave me $1 million to
start my brand new record company, which turned out to be Arista Records, and
it was couched in terms of mail-order rights,'' he says.



``I think a combination of getting payment of $1 million from them and the
ultimate exoneration of any problems that were charged never really cure the
pain of something that occurred that was unjust, but you learn in life to move
on.''



And move on he did. Over the years, Davis used his eye for talent to build the
company from a young upstart to one of the industry's formidable labels, and
did so by staying true to his vision - signing ``all-timers.''



``The challenge is to pick artists that are going to be long lasting artists
and not just fads of the moment,'' he said, rattling off a list of Arista's
roster. ``I mean, Alan Jackson is an all-timer. Brooks & Dunn are all-timers. I
mean, on the LaFace front, with L.A. and Babyface. ... TLC started with Kris
Kross. Who's around? It's TLC.''



Of course, Arista was also home to one of the most infamous fad groups of
all-time - Milli Vanilli. But Davis insists that the lip-synching duo is not
part of his legacy. He says Milli Vanilli was signed by Arista's European
division, and he was not involved.



One deal in which Davis was involved - and perhaps one of his smartest
investments - was signing the 21-year-old Combs, then an up-and-coming producer
who had made his name by making stars of artists like Mary J. Blige and Jodeci.
Over several meetings, Combs played Davis his latest hits - and Davis knew he
was special.



Today, Combs' Bad Boy label has produced success after success, from Combs' own
multiplatinum album - his second disc, ``Forever,'' has just been released - to
hot young acts like Faith Evans and 112. The partnership between Combs and
Davis has been sort of a mutual education for both, Davis says.



``With Puffy totally, it was the street. I didn't know the street until I met
Puffy Combs. He didn't know mainstream, crossover music to pop,'' Davis said.
``Now, I feel comfortable enough, through the last five years, with Mase, with
Biggie, with Puffy ... now I feel comfortable enough to have our own artists -
Brand Nubian, Naughty by Nature.''



Davis spends much of his day listening to music, looking for new songs, new
artists, new producers. His desk is littered with tapes and compact discs. But
music is not the only thing that drives him or gives him satisfaction.



Last year, he was honored by the charity AmFar for donating more than $300
million to AIDS charities over the past 15 years. But what the divorced Davis
seems to cherish most is the relationship he has with his children - all of
whom went to law school and are in the entertainment business.



``We have dinner every Sunday night,'' he says. ``I'm very close with my kids.
We go away four times a year together. I believe in a close family life ... and
not just being loving strangers.''



AP-NY-09-15-99 1240EDT