As a side note, as I've been digging a little more into the background of Whitney's songs and career, I've discovered a few rabbit holes that I didn't know existed, the first of which was even though I'd heard the name Clive Davis before, I knew nothing about him, so I did a little digging and put together the following:
By the time Whitney Houston was being promoted to Clive Davis, he was a legend in the music business many times over.
Starting as an attorney at a firm that included Columbia Records as a client, Davis's work impressed them, and they hired him as a vice-president in 1965, becoming president the following year. He then went on a streak of signing successful talent, British folk singer Donovan being the first. During this time, he also hired Tony Orlando, who initially worked as the General Manager of one of the label's subsidiaries before becoming vice-president of Columbia/CBS Music and signing Barry Manilow.
A pivotal moment early in Davis's career was when he attended the Monterrey Pop Festival, at the encouragement of one of his business associates. His trip resulted in the signing of Janis Joplin. Other notable signings that followed include Laura Nyro, Santana, The Chambers Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Loggins and Messina and Aerosmith. He also oversaw the release of country singer Lynn Anderson's song Rose Garden, which crossed over from the country chart and reached #1 not only in the U.S. but also 16 other countries. One of his last signings for Columbia was Earth, Wind and Fire. Not long after, he was fired for allegedly using company money to pay for his son's bar mitzvah. While it looked like a termination, it was actually just a lateral move, as another division of Columbia, Columbia Pictures, hired him as a consultant for their own label, Bell Records, which would evolve into Arista.
With the new label, Davis brought in over the years an absolute Murderer's Row of talent: Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Patti Smith, Eric Carmen, The Bay City Rollers, Eric Carmen, Expose, Taylor Dayne, Ace of Base, Air Supply, Ray Parker, Jr., Alicia Keys, Carly Simon, Melissa Manchester, Grateful Dead and The Kinks among others. He also created sub-label Arista Nashville and signed the likes of Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Pam Tillis and Brad Paisley. He also founded other multiple other labels that featured artists TLC, Usher, Outkast, Pink, Sean 'Puffy' Combs, The Notorious B.I.G. among others, culminating in an ascendancy to president of Sony Music Entertainment in the early 2000s. He has won the Grammy Trustees Award, the President's Merit Award, the Grammy Museum was renamed to The Clive Davis Theater and finally for this list, he was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 2000.
With such an impressive resume, it's clear that from the beginning, everyone trusted his judgement and saw him as a star-maker. When he heard Whitney for the first time and signed her, he brought all weapons to bear, opting not only to not rush her into the studio, but also to ensure she had the right repertoire of songs that worked in tandem with the image they were going to create. While this was extremely lucrative for Whitney, it also locked her into Davis's formulaic approach to her output.
It is at this point that I want to circle back to his comment regarding the specific choice for Whitney's first single:
"We wanted to establish her in the black marketplace first, otherwise you can fall between cracks, where Top 40 won't play you and R&B won't consider you their own. We felt that 'You Give Good Love' would be, at the very least, a major black hit, though we didn't think that it would cross over as strongly as it did. When it did cross over with such velocity that gave us great encouragement."
Even for the 80's, that was a provocative statement that should have caused even a little controversy or tainted his image in the eyes of future artists, but ultimately I think it proved the old axiom, money talks and ******** walks.
There's more to this subtext to come; Clive Davis is just the tip of a whole sad, crazy iceberg that's just begun its collision course with Whitney Houston.
youtu.be
