New York Times - Arts

For Patti Smith, the best guidance was something that Davis rarely granted: free rein.Patti Smith and Clive Davis in 1993.

Davis “treated me with the same respect and kindness as a 22-year-old nobody as he did after all my success,” Springsteen said after the music executive’s death on Monday.Clive Davis and Gladys Knight at a pre-Grammy Awards gala in 2024. “There will never be another Clive,” Knight said after Davis’s death.

The label boss, who died on Monday, had a passion for hits — especially ones he masterminded — during his formidable tenures at Columbia, Arista and J Records.After Clive Davis, right, assured Carlos Santana that “Smooth” would be the most important song on the album “Supernatural,” it spent three months at No. 1.

For years, creators were on the fringes at Creative Artists Agency, a Hollywood talent behemoth. Now the agency is putting them center stage.Trisha Paytas, a digital star, is part of C.A.A.’s growing roster of creators.

He rose from a midlevel position at Columbia Records to become one of music’s most powerful executives, shepherding stars like Barry Manilow and Whitney Houston.One of the few executives in music to become a household name, Clive Davis maintained a visible role as a starmaker for more than five decades.